Skills, vocational qualifications and employer engagement: a new agenda for education

Wednesday 10th October 2007

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Engaging employers in schools – lessons, benefits and risks

Elizabeth Reid, Chief ExecutiveSpecialist Schools and Academies Trust

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The Specialist School Programme is now an established part of the maintained secondary education system in England. Around 85% of maintained secondary schools are now specialist and the Government is encouraging all that are eligible, and meet the performance criteria, to join the programme by 2008.

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Two key components of the specialist school programme:

• develop the capacity to provide or facilitate high quality learning opportunities and outcomes in specialist subjects, either working as an individual school or working collaboratively with other schools, within the school’s wider local community, including local businesses and employers; and

• extend opportunities for vocational learning and enrichment activity through the specialist subjects, including through links with sponsors, business, employers, further and higher education institutions and organisations related to the specialism.

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Engaging with Higher Education

Understanding and enriching curriculum

Widening participation

Progression

Transition and skills

Community

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Engaging with employers through:

• sponsorship at point of designation

• working with schools to enhance curriculum, management and governance

• employer engagement conferences

• publications and case studies

• re-engaging with employers at the point of re-designation

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• the academies programme

• support for the development of Trust schools

• the 14-19 support programme and Diploma

Development Partnerships

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The lessons learned

• Engagement between employers and education needs to be for some clear purpose

• There are benefits that the employers can derive from the partnership between them and the educational institutions

• Engagements with employers need to be viewed flexibly and creatively

• Engagement with employers is not the key to untold sources of financial backing

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Benefits for schools

• knowledge

• perspective

• application

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Risks

• Employer partners “dropping out” – often due to lack of commitment caused by lack of clarity of purpose

• Educational institutions failing to “service” the partnerships adequately, resulting in the partnerships’ demise

• Schools and employers finding it difficult to listen and learn from each other.

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• Young employees/managers who engage with education for the benefit of their own development as well as the development of students can find relationships with students hard to manage

• Failure to follow the project through so that evaluations and future planning, which should lead to cementing future relationships, are neglected

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Higher Education, employers and schools

• Many of the skills that HEIs need in their undergraduates are the same as those that employers are increasingly seeking

• Skills needed by both HEIs and employers include independent learning, critical thinking, argument construction and self- reflection

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Moving forward

SSAT believes that any increased focus on school links with employers should place equal importance on the quality of activity that represents high value for money. Any future activity needs to achieve fundamental change in people’s attitudes and practices in employer engagement that will ensure sustainability of employer involvement in schools into the future.

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