Why work with schools and colleges?
It has never been easier for employers to work with schools and colleges and reasons for doing so have never been more compelling.
Hundreds of thousands of employers are already working with schools and colleges and are considering deepening their relationships. Others are planning to get involved for the first time. All have a simple question to answer: what's in it for me?
Benefits for employers
Employers of all types, sizes and sectors are taking the opportunity to support children and young people in their education because partnerships with schools and colleges:
Employers of all types, sizes and sectors are taking the opportunity to support children and young people in their education because partnerships with schools and colleges:
Recruit the right people more easily and efficiently
- Getting involved with schools and colleges can improve the flow of young people into an industrial sector and cut recruitment costs through nurturing the interests of talented young people.
Retain the best people more easily and efficiently
- Getting involved with schools and colleges can help an enterprise to become the employer of choice in a locality or sector. Employees highly value the time they spend as volunteers in schools and colleges, and with increased job satisfaction comes better staff retention and improved productivity.
Develop staff in real life scenarios more easily and efficiently
- Getting involved with schools and colleges presents many opportunities to develop staff in a cost effective way, helping them to build, whether as a school governor or a student mentor, the basket of skills and competencies they need to get ahead.
Build brand awareness more easily and efficiently
- Getting involved with schools and colleges is a cost effective way to build understanding and reputation of an enterprise, brand or product, and then turn awareness into advocacy.
Self-interest drives much employer engagement with schools and colleges. By helping themselves, however, employers play a crucial part in building our future prosperity by helping to equip young people with the skillsets that underpin our economic success in the new world marketplace.
When employers work well with teachers, it makes a real difference to young people. It helps them to understand the links between the classroom and the workplace, improving their motivation. It helps them to achieve more and leave full-time education with skills, knowledge and attitudes that employers value.
For more information on the benefits that come from employers working with schools and colleges, click on the following links:
Anyone - from public, private or third sector, from SMEs or large national employers, from the range of industrial sectors, can become involved in partnerships with education.
In this film, Leicestershire business woman Gill Morris explains why small businesses are getting involved with schools and colleges by helping them as they teach Diplomas.
The following short YouTube film vividly demonstrates the benefits of working with schools and colleges.
Why it makes a difference
Demand for highly skilled staff to grow, says CBI/EDI
The demand for skilled people will intensify during the recovery, and employers' top recruitment priorities are employability skills such as problem solving and team working, above exam results, a new survey reveals. The CBI believes that business has a key role to play in the education system.
The new CBI report, called Ready to grow: business priorities for education and skills, is sponsored by leading qualifications awarding body EDI. The survey was answered by 694 employers, which together employ over 2.4 million people and represent companies of all sizes and sectors.
Visit: Ready to grow: business priorities for education and skills
Learning outside the classroom crucial, says Ofsted
The government's response to the Commons Education Committee's report both acknowledges the importance of learning outside the classroom and promises to investigate the constraints on schools arising from unnecessary health and safety red tape or from teachers' pay and conditions.
To read Ofsted's response to the Commons Education Committee Report Transforming Education Outside the Classroom please visit:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmeduc/525/52504.htm
Also see Education Executive article: http://www.edexec.co.uk/news/1387/think-outside-the-box/
Helping young people succeed: the role of employers
Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has launched a report, commissioned by The Education and Employers Taskforce, examining how employers can contribute to improving careers education through inspiring and better informing young people.
The dynamic labour market and the vast range of career options available can leave young people feeling 'bewildered' and 'uninformed'. The research shows that a substantial divide between what young people want from their careers advice at school and what they get, including the level of involvement of employers.
Read the full report
Governors Mean Business
This School Governors One-Stop Shop (SGOSS) and University of Hertfordshire research report shows the ways in which Governors are valued by head teachers and schools. These include challenging and holding the leadership to account, monitoring, evaluation and getting to know the areas of school life in need of development.
CBI calls for employers and schools to collaborate for employability
In Fulfilling potential, the business role in education, the CBI, the UK's largest employers' body, calls for the anticipated government White Paper on school reform to set out a clear strategy on how businesses can get involved in education.
Visit: http://www.cbi.org.uk/pdf/fulfilling-potential-the-business-role-in-education.p