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North East LEP welcomes newest Enterprise Adviser

The founder of a burgeoning biometric company based in Newcastle upon Tyne is the latest regional business leader to join the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP’s) Enterprise Adviser initiative.

Shaun Oakes, managing director of ievo (www.ievoreader.com), will work with staff and pupils at The Hermitage Academy, Chester le Street, to improve careers education and support the Academy in working towards the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks, a national pilot scheme led by the North East LEP to improve the quality of careers advice in schools and colleges.

Working strategically with senior leaders at The Hermitage Academy to shape the quality of careers provision, Shaun joins a long list of leading North East business people who have become Enterprise Advisers.

Shaun Oakes, managing director of ievo, said:

As a local employer I know there is a wealth of talent in the North East and what we’re hoping to achieve through the partnership with The Hermitage Academy is for students to gain an understanding of the type of skills employers in our region are looking for.

It’s important students know that the subject choices they make in school have a direct impact on their chosen career path. We’ll be using our own management team at ievo as case studies to demonstrate pathways into various jobs, from marketing and computing to sales and project management.

Practical sessions on interview skills and cover letter writing will help students understand it’s not just academic achievements businesses are looking for. We’ll be championing the importance of work experience and apprenticeships as really valuable routes to employment.

Andrea Charlton, careers lead for The Hermitage Academy said:

This is an exciting opportunity for students at The Hermitage Academy. We place a high value on showing them the importance of the subjects they study and how they link to real life areas of work. Working with ievo will provide students with a great insight into the many areas of careers guidance.

Lindsey Peek, Enterprise Coordinator at the North East LEP said:

We’re delighted to be working with ievo and The Hermitage Academy on our Enterprise Adviser initiative. Shaun is passionate about supporting careers education and, working in partnership with the team at The Hermitage Academy, there is already a lot of exciting work taking place to improve provision and support students to make better, more informed choices, about their future careers.

Enterprise Advisers bridge the gap between business and education, ensuring schools and colleges provide the best possible careers advice and students have an excellent understanding of the opportunities available to them in the North East.

The initiative also supports schools and colleges in delivering the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks; eight clearly defined benchmarks for high quality and effective careers guidance. The pilot in the North East LEP region has proved so successful the benchmarks are expected to form part of Government’s new statutory guidance for schools in delivering careers advice. The North East LEP also hopes to expand the scheme to include primary schools.

The North East LEP’s Enterprise Adviser programme has been running since December 2015. Part of a national initiative developed by The Careers and Enterprise Company, Enterprise Advisers work in partnership with enterprise coordinators to support schools and colleges to navigate the range of possible employer interactions and to help them create a whole school strategy for careers, enterprise and employer engagement.