Skills Archives - Page 16 of 28 - North East Local Enterprise Partnership

A partnership between Marden High School in North Tyneside and their Enterprise Adviser has led to a new way of supporting students as they prepare to enter the world of work or further education.

Fiona Brennan, Career Lead at Marden High School, has been working in partnership with Jane Austin, Director of HR at water retail company Wave, with the aim of strengthening careers guidance for pupils at all levels of the school and working towards achieving more of the Gatsby Benchmarks which form a central part of the Government’s Careers Strategy.

Fiona Brennan explained: “We’ve recently worked with North Tyneside Learning Trust to implement mock interviews for the whole of Year 10. Local employers including Jane’s colleagues from Wave and also representatives from the Department of Work and Pensions, Accenture and Newcastle Building Society all took part, giving our students a real taste of what interviews are like and, importantly, helping us to identify where students need additional support.

“We found that some students needed extra help in identifying and describing the skills they have that relate to certain jobs and some need help with building their confidence, for example.

“We’re now in the process of implementing a new programme of one-to-one coaching/life-coaching for students, which is tailored to the specific needs of individual students as a result of these interviews.”

Jane Austin added: “This will help the students with their confidence and self-belief as well as helping them to understand what types of jobs are out there for them and the options they have.

“We wanted to take a more holistic view of preparing students for their future careers. It’s not just about academic success and that’s why we’ve taken this step of joining forces with a life-coaching service. I think it’s amazing; I don’t know of any other school that’s doing this and I think Marden High School deserves a lot of credit for providing this kind of tailored support.

The school also organised a full day event for Year 9 students, working with members of staff from Wave to run a Super Learning Day. Students took part in a tailored business game involving a series of workshops each based on a different area of work including HR, finance, marketing and production. Students gained experience in each area before pitching ideas to their peers and the panel of business representatives – a bit like Dragons’ Den.

“The students worked in teams and not only did they learn about these different areas of work but they developed their time management and team-working skills as well,” said Fiona.

“Events like this, along with the coaching programme, are something different from what we’ve done before and they wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been working side by side with Jane and her team from Wave.”

Find out more about the North East LEP Enterprise Adviser programme.

The North East has been selected to host a prestigious Careers Hub dedicated to improving careers education for young people.

One of 21 across England, the ‘North East Ambition: Careers Hub’ will support schools and colleges in the region to implement and achieve the 8 Gatsby Career Benchmarks – the clearly defined framework for ‘Good Career Guidance’.

Delivered by The Careers & Enterprise Company in partnership with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the North East Ambition: Careers Hub will comprise of 40 secondary schools with a separate Hub servicing 10 colleges – including all nine FE colleges in the North East and one sixth form college.

Both Hubs will support the North East LEP’s skills initiative, North East Ambition, which aims to ensure each and every student in the region has access to high quality careers education and all secondary schools and colleges in the North East are achieving the Benchmarks by 2024.

Heidi Mottram, Vice Chair of the North East LEP, said: “Following our successful delivery of the Gatsby Career Benchmarks pilot, I’m delighted another of the initiatives trailed and tested here in our region is being rolled out across the country as part of the Government’s Careers Strategy.

“In recognition of our experience delivering outstanding careers guidance, the North East Ambition: Careers Hub will be the national lead, supporting the other 20 to deliver the eight Gatsby benchmarks in schools and colleges across England.”

Claudia Harris, Chief Executive of The Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “We’re excited by the potential impact of the Hubs. If employers, schools and colleges can better prepare young people for the world of work, we’re not just benefiting the future economy, but improving prospects for thousands of young people.”

Professor Sir John Holman, author of the Gatsby Career Benchmarks, said: “The North East LEP led the pilot of the Gatsby Benchmarks to great success and I’m very pleased that they will now be sharing what they have learnt with 20 new Careers Hubs around the country. The North East pilot demonstrated what is possible, and I hope the new hubs across the country can build on that success and take it still further.”

Careers Hubs are a central part of the Government’s Careers Strategy, published in December. The strategy aims to improve careers education and help prepare young people for the world of work.

Schools and colleges enrolled in the Hubs will work with universities, training providers, employers and career professionals to improve careers education. They will be supported by a ‘Hub Lead’ and Enterprise Coordinators who will help coordinate activity and build networks. They will also be able to access a Central Hub Fund, equivalent to around £1k per school or college, with additional support available, including access to training for career leaders and enhanced employer encounters.

The North East is the only region in England to host a dedicated Hub for colleges.

Heidi continued: “Improving careers education for young people and ensuring businesses have access to a skilled workforce is central to our Strategic Economic Plan for the North East.

“The North East Ambition: Careers Hub will help us achieve this by giving young people access to high quality careers guidance and preparing them for the world of work.”

For more information about how the North East LEP is improving skills in the region, visit www.nelep.co.uk/skills

The North East LEP is recognised as a national leader in careers education policy, pioneering the delivery of the Gatsby Benchmarks for good careers guidance we’ve helped embed in regional schools.

We don’t believe in resting on our laurels and are looking to go one step further to ensure every child in the North East has access to the very best in careers engagement.

As part of this commitment, we’ve looked over the Atlantic to the United States to draw upon the best of their work bringing the classroom and the boardroom closer together.

So it’s especially pleasing to see the impact being made in one regional school in particular by the North East LEP’s Education Challenge.

Pupils aged seven and eight at Newcastle’s Excelsior Academy are spearheading an industry alignment pilot project uniting big business with cutting edge teaching.

The project – piloted by our partner The Edge Foundation education charity – builds on the best of the highly successful Ford Next Generation Learning programme embedded in schools across Nashville, Tennessee, and other US cities.

The US programme run with car manufacturing giant Ford registered great success in both the classroom and the boardroom.

In Newcastle, experts from Virgin Trains East Coast worked with Excelsior Academy primary pupils to teach them about the essential workings of their business and the different skills of its employees needed to run the company.

Project manager Hannah Cummins helped capture the creative spark of youngsters in the classroom, drawing up business plans to underpin the building of solar-powered models.

The final step in the project was to present their plans and models in the main school hall to the project partners, family and friends.

No small task, but one they delivered with great aplomb!

The impact of the project is many fold. Children have been introduced to the professional and personal skills needed to fulfil roles such as in finance, engineering and marketing.

As well as the professional skills, youngsters now know the importance to employers of personal qualities like a positive attitude, resilience, teamwork and self confidence.

Excelsior headteacher Craig Taylor plans to roll out the project to Year 7 and Year 8 pupils from next September.

The project also worked with Future Me – a collaboration between the five North East universities to help raise children’s aspirations further.

The main aim of the Education Challenge is to reduce the gap between the region’s best and lowest performing secondary schools and improve the social mobility of young people.

It’s helping teachers and governors at Excelsior, Norham High in North Shields and Churchill Community College in Wallsend to integrate careers learning into the curriculum.

The US model is informing our Education Challenge which we hope will be introduced into schools across the country.

A bold ambition, but one that is built on firm foundations with outstanding partner support.

It’s off to a flying start at Excelsior Academy where youngsters are the standard bearers for its success.

Ends.

Our ambition here at the North East LEP is to help young people in the region prepare for the world of work. And that means each and every young person. All the work we do with schools, colleges and employers is focused on meeting the needs of each and every young person, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

It’s a startling statistic that just 6% of people with a learning disability are in paid employment* and yet more than 65% of people with a learning disability want to and are able to work**.

How do we start to turn this around and ensure that all young people in the North East have the opportunity to experience the world of work, receive high quality careers guidance and have clear routes into employment?

How can we make sure businesses are able to access the widest pool of talent possible and reflect the communities they serve? And how can businesses make sure they’re not overlooking potential employees who can bring real benefits to an organisation?

We’ve formed a working group made up of businesses, careers leads from schools (both SEND specialist schools and those with a SEND provision) and representatives from the third sector. We’re also working closely with the Leonard Cheshire Foundation and host their North East presence, working together to support young people to develop their careers.

The working group aims to uncover and tackle the challenges faced by the SEND sector when it comes to transitioning from education to work. We are also sharing examples of best practice with employers and offering guidance for schools and businesses on how to best support young people with SEND to successfully enter employment.

Nationally, one great example of best practice is the National Grid. Their focus is on building a workforce that meets the needs of the business and that also helps to create a fairer and more inclusive society where everyone can reach their full potential. Their EmployAbility programme which provides supported internships for young people with SEND has seen fantastic results – 60% of interns have gone into paid employment, compared with a national average of only 6%, and they have a 100% retention rate for intern recruits.

Every business can benefit from better engaging with young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Young people have a valuable contribution to make to our workplaces and businesses like the National Grid have seen wider benefits across their entire workforce such as a boost to overall performance and morale, and increased coaching opportunities. 95% of the employee volunteers for National Grid’s EmployAbility scheme said they felt more positive about the company.

If you’d like to find out more I’d encourage you to register for our free event on 15 May at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead when we’ll be hearing from the National Grid and the Careers and Enterprise Company who will be sharing more detail about their successful model. You can book a free ticket via Eventbrite.

We’re also looking for more businesses to join our working group. Whether you’re already successfully working with young people with SEND or you would like to help champion the right of each and every young person in our region to access the world of work, we’d love to hear from you.

Michelle Rainbow, North East LEP Skills Director.

*Source: Mencap

**Source: HM Government, Valuing Employment Now

Opportunity to join North East LEP bid to secure ‘North East Ambition: Careers Hub’ in the region

Deadline for Expressions of Interest: Wednesday 9 May 2018

Following the launch of the new National Careers Strategy (December 2017), the updated Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges (Jan 2018) and the launch of the Careers Strategy Implementation Plan (April 2018), the Careers and Enterprise Company have released a prospectus for the development of 20 ‘Career Hubs’ across the country.

Acting on behalf of schools, colleges and businesses in the region, it is our intention to bid for and lead a Careers Hub in the North East LEP area.

The ‘North East Ambition: Careers Hub’ would form part of the support the North East LEP currently provides to schools and colleges through our North East Ambition Strategy – a core component of the region’s Strategic Economic Plan.

A Careers Hub is a group of between 20 and 40 schools and colleges located in the same geographic area (LEP region), working to ensure the Gatsby Benchmarks are delivered and that careers outcomes are improved for all young people.

Securing a Careers Hub for the North East will be a competitive process. Part of the application process requires us to name up to 40 schools and colleges that will form part of our Careers Hub here in the North East. The Careers and Enterprise Company have outlined in their Careers Hub Prospectus that its main target is “mainstream secondary schools and colleges, although we also welcome the inclusion of special schools and pupil referral units in bids. The target pupils are in years 7-13. Independent schools are not eligible to be part of the 20-40 schools/colleges.”

Should you wish your school / college to be involved in the North East LEP’s bid, please read the background information document.

Please read this document carefully as it provides details about some of the information you will need to include in your Expression of Interest.

If after reading the background information you do wish to apply to be part of the ‘North East Ambition: Careers Hub’, please complete the expression of interest form and return to us by emailing goodcareers@nelep.co.uk. This will serve as your application and will be used by the North East LEP to select the 40 schools and colleges that will make up the Careers Hub in our region.

Completed Expression of Interest forms should be returned to goodcareers@nelep.co.uk by 12pm on Wednesday 9 May 2018.

If, as part of your application, you wish to be considered a ‘Lead School/College’ please complete the section of the expression of interest form relating to ‘Lead School/College’.

Thank you – and we look forward to receiving your Expression of Interest.

Documents:

Background information

Expression of interest form

In conversation with Mrs Louise Levy, Senior Leader Business & Finance, Cardinal Hume Catholic School

My journey as a school governor started around nine years ago. I joined my daughter’s primary school (Fellside Community Primary School, Whickham) as a parent governor and at the time I knew very little about the role and responsibility of a school governing body.

As the educational landscape has changed dramatically over those nine years, so has the role and remit of school governance. It remains a vital part of any school, be it Primary, Secondary or Academy Trust – with far more accountability being placed upon governing bodies.

Governing bodies and its members are there to provide strategic leadership; setting a path for the school and its students that results in the best standards of education. Governors are also responsible for budget monitoring, the allocation of school finances and resources, and supporting and challenging the head teacher and leadership team’s vision within school to drive standards. It’s also critically important that school is a fond and memorable experience for all students so ensuring pupil wellbeing is another hugely important factor.

I’m often asked what qualities make a good school governor. For me it’s enthusiasm, someone with a real interest in education and a passion for creating a bright future for children. I also think it’s important to question and be curious about things as this helps bring about both understanding and change.

Learning from others, listening and creating an atmosphere of trust are other key qualities. I’ve personally learnt a great deal from Chairs of the various governing bodies I’ve been part of and I think that’s made me a better school governor.

One of biggest changes in the role of a school governing body is ensuring pupils are prepared for the world of work. It’s not just about having a careers fair and inviting local businesses to talk to pupils about what they do; it’s about creating meaningful encounters with employers. We are starting to do this better at secondary level but I think more can be done with primary aged children.

I currently work with a visionary Headteacher who has ensured Cardinal Hume Catholic School in Gateshead is now a Main Provider of Apprenticeships. One of only nine schools in the country to receive this accreditation, we will be training young people within the region in partnership with the business partners to mould and develop their staff of the future who are ‘work ready’ from the minute they become employed. This is a great example of how school governors, head teachers and employers across the region can work in partnership to bring about real change.

Today’s school governing bodies include people from a wide and diverse range of industry sectors and people who demonstrate many different, yet key skills to benefit the school community. All this experience adds value to pupils’ education as governing bodies can use their business networks to support careers education and identify career opportunities for young people in their area.

Of course there’s always room for improvement. I think knowledge sharing is something school governing bodies should do more often. We should be sharing best practice and collaborating between governing bodies. All governors should be able to visit other Good and Outstanding schools. Every school has something to offer others and it’s an excellent way of helping governors expand their knowledge past their own school.

We should invite more monitoring of governing bodies, specifically to ensure we’re doing the best for our schools and pupils. Regular ‘health checks’ should be seen as a positive thing as they would identify areas where governing bodies need to concentrate further in individual schools – they’re all different, with different challenges.

For anyone interested in becoming a school governor I think it’s important to fully understand what the role entails. Speak to your local school, the head teacher or Chair of governors to really understand what’s required of you. It can be hard work but it’s very rewarding. The Department of Education and National Governance Association websites also house lots of information.

If you’d prefer to play more of a passive role there are opportunities to be observers or associate governors. This can be a good way to start your school governance journey as it gives people time to learn the sector, particular for someone outside of education.

I’m enormously proud to be a school governor. Seeing improvements happen across the school and the impact that has on pupils, staff and the local communities is very rewarding. When you see the work you have done play a positive part on their educational journey, and their smiling faces, you know that’s what it’s all about.

By Mrs Louise Levy, Senior Leader Business & Finance, Cardinal Hume Catholic School

Derwentside College provides high quality education and training that helps learners to develop the knowledge, skills and qualities they need to achieve sustained employment and build successful careers.

Here principal and chief executive Karen Redhead tells the North East LEP about why it’s important to support the ageing workforce and its pioneering work with the over 50s.

Why is engaging with the over 50s so important?

The national picture, reflected here in the North East, shows the simple fact that we are all living longer, which means the over 50s are a growing demographic.

It’s also true that people are staying much more fit and healthy, meaning there is an increasing tendency – and appetite – for working into the later years.

In this region it’s no different. At Derwentside College, we often see people who have been made redundant or become a carer for another family member who want to resume working and need to retrain. They have a huge contribution to make in terms of skill set and work ethic.

Let’s also look at the economic argument. The North East has skills gaps that this part of the population can help close. What’s more, when people are physically and mentally active it contributes to their wellbeing, in turn reducing their reliance on the healthcare system and state.

With all this in mind, the over fifties are a talent pool we’d be silly to overlook.

How does the work you are doing fit with the North East LEP’s retrain, regain, retain campaign and the government’s Fuller Working Lives Strategy?

The LEP’s retrain, regain, retain work in line with the government’s Fuller Working Lives Strategy is extremely welcome. Our offer fits in very nicely with this.

Derwentside College is one of the UK’s largest providers of apprenticeships and last year just over a thousand of our apprentices were aged fifty or above.

We have many, many cases in which employers have had the foresight to see the benefits of retraining their existing workforce. In this instance, our job is to provide training and developing opportunities to help them unlock the potential of their older employees.

Where we align ourselves heavily with the LEP is in the drive to create ‘more and better jobs’. In particular that means helping people to move into the better jobs category, which is where someone is classed as holding a level 3 or above qualification.

Our focus is on the delivery of a recognisable level five qualification and leadership and management skills that support the technical skills of the individual in the sector they have been working.

How is Derwentside College working with employers to help them unlock their workforce potential and recruit more over 50s?

Our employer base is incredibly diverse – we are a significant provider within the public sector and we work with a lot of private companies to up skill their workforce.

We also work with a number of partners to ensure an appropriate skills pipeline.

Crucially, we have an outstanding partnership with Jobcentre Plus through which we work with the unemployed. This is hugely successful because we base our training provision around market needs, giving businesses access to the talent that they need and want. We have around 300 learners over fifty taking part.

We offer a specific course for the over 50s called ‘Pace and Purpose Fifty Plus’ and this links with Jobcentre requirements. The aim of this is to get the long-term unemployed back into a college environment so they can retrain in a way that’s comfortable to them.

In terms of our work with employers, we apply a very tailored approach to each one. We spend time understanding the issues, find solutions, help them train their staff and make sure this all marries with their policies.

Our work academies linked to specific sectors and employers have been particularly popular. Our contract with caravan manufacturer Erwen Hymer is a great example of this.

Erwen Hymer needs to increase its 500-strong workforce to 700. In response we have developed a manufacturing academy focused on the unemployed to deliver the skills it requires. It’s been a brilliant way to get learners into jobs to everyone’s benefit.

As National Careers Week Ambassador for the North East of England, I’ve been delighted to be able to take a proactive role in encouraging employer engagement across the region and promote the benchmarks within the Good Career Guidance Report, which identifies what ‘good’ careers guidance looks like.

Networking across the North East is key to careers guidance success and the generation of meaningful encounters. Experiences of the workplace, between employers and young people is critical in achieving the benchmarks. My role involves liaising with the national ambassador team, sharing resources and case studies to encourage and promote these meaningful experiences.

As an Enterprise Adviser for the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, I strongly support the delivery of its North East Ambition programme, which promotes skills across the region to improve the economy of the North East. Good careers guidance and the access to employment that is right for the individual, is a critical part of this drive around skills.

During National Careers Week (5-10March), I attended a series of events, actively promoting the fantastic work that is being delivered across the North East on careers guidance benchmarking and best practice working with employers.

I have been working particularly closely with Sue Taylor, the careers lead at Heaton Manor School in Newcastle upon Tyne. The school has been making great strides to achieve the benchmarks. Sue and the team have identified where the gaps are, and they are taking an innovative approach to making real connections between employers and young people.

To give the students access and exposure to a range of businesses, Heaton Manor School held a series of lunchtime talks for the duration of National Careers Week and beyond for a further week.

Attending employers include Accenture, Tarmac, Virgin Money, Digital Union, NBS, Ronald James, Baltic Training and Equiwatt, a green energy start-up company.

What an amazing opportunity for that group of Year 9’s to get first-hand information from a diverse range of employers, including small business, corporates, membership organisations and self-employed business people – all willing to talk to these students and create just the right conditions for excellent careers guidance.

This is just one example of how the North East is generating engagement between schools and employers and there is a real understanding of the benefits of developing these meaningful encounters with young people.

I am looking for more schools and business leaders across the North East that are making great strides in careers advice, generating real connections and headway in achieving the benchmarks, to use as positive case studies for our region and showcase them on a national platform.

Please communicate your successes on social media, using the hashtag #NorthEastAmbition when you tweet and tag us @northeastlep

Let’s shout about our careers guidance successes across the North East and on the national stage.

I welcome contact from schools, colleges and business leaders that would like to discuss future opportunities to network and create meaningful careers guidance opportunities.

Catherine Boland is currently HR Director at Printed.com until she moves to her new role as Business and Community Engagement Lead with Baltic Training at the end of April. Catherine is National Careers Week Ambassador for the North East of England.

North East LEP Skills Director Michelle Rainbow gives the lowdown on apprenticeships and calls on the Government to listen closely to businesses and help create more demand.

The Government plans to create three million apprenticeships by 2020. It’s an increasingly ambitious target, not least because the number of apprenticeships has dropped since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced in April 2017.

So what’s going on? Here in the North East it’s a mixed picture. Having seen apprenticeship schemes promoted heavily, pupils, parents and schools have understandably bought in. Conversely, businesses have been hanging back, waiting to see what the quality standards will be like – so there is supply of eager applicants but less demand.

The complexity of the Apprenticeship Levy hasn’t helped. An early assessment report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows that 22% of employers don’t know whether they have to pay the Levy or not.

This plays out here, where SMEs continue to seek clarity. There is a big difference between sectors which are used to hiring apprentices, such as construction, manufacturing and engineering, and those for whom this is still a new innovation. It’s one of the reasons our case studies focus on the fields of pharmaceuticals and law as they’re not traditionally associated with this type of scheme.

Right now our ask of Government is that it continues to liaise closely with employers to understand their needs, provides reassurance about quality standards and simplifies how the Levy works – and this has to include clarification on how unspent monies will be used to set the record straight.

We need an agile system which can flex and respond to opportunities and issues in a much quicker timeframe. We also need to create real business demand.

Better qualifications and better jobs for all

Here at the North East LEP we particularly welcome higher and degree apprenticeships as we strive to create more and better jobs to support the local economy.

The North East Growth Hub lists the various providers and is well worth a look for those looking for more information.

However we are keen that the government takes steps to ensure these remain open to everyone.

Access to affordable degree-level education will of course prove popular across the board as more people understand the opportunity and move to maximise this. As such there is a particular need to engage with the more disadvantaged and not just the squeezed middle classes if we are to raise ambitions, keep a level playing field and make sure no one gets left behind.

Ultimately the apprenticeship drive is moving in the right direction but implementation always brings new challenges, as well as the need for expectation management.

Rest assured, we will continue to work with the business community, schools and parents to represent their needs with Government and do all we can to achieve the greatest success possible.

Category: Skills

A new approach to holistic careers support in North Tyneside

North East selected to host lead Careers Hub

In conversation with… North East LEP chair, Andrew Hodgson, who discusses our Industry Alignment pilot project

Helping each and every young person into the North East workforce

Open call to North East secondary schools and colleges

The importance of good school governance

In conversation with Karen Redhead, chief executive of Derwentside College: Supporting the ageing workforce

Representing the North East at National Careers Week

National Apprenticeship Week – What next for the North East?