Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director at the North East LEP, explains how North East schools, colleges and employers are coming together to improve outcomes for all young people.
Every term the North East LEP coordinates a day for all schools and colleges in the region to come together and focus on driving up standards of careers guidance and attainment for young people.
The fact that 151 secondary schools and all 9 colleges in our region were present at our most recent meeting is testament to the commitment we have here in the North East to creating a real community of good practice.
When we began work with 16 schools and colleges on a pilot project three years ago, our aim was to help the group to embed the Gatsby Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks, which are recognised as highly effective for top quality careers guidance. The pilot was hugely successful, with the participants reporting a transformational impact not only on their careers guidance but throughout the culture of the organisations, and the pilot had national impact, resulting in the Benchmarks forming a central part of Government’s Careers Strategy.
However we are not resting on our laurels. As my Chair Andrew Hodgson reminds me often, our focus now is on rolling out the Benchmarks to every school and college in the North East and on supporting the national roll-out, using what we learnt from the pilot.
We are continuing to partner North East schools with Enterprise Advisers local senior business leaders and employers who volunteer their valuable time to forge closer links between education and industry and we want every school and college to have an Enterprise Adviser partnership to help shape their delivery of careers education and employer engagement.
Over the past three years we have been consistently working to share our learning with the wider North East region and beyond. Everything we do is available to be shared with all schools and colleges and we’re already actively engaging with nine tenths of schools and colleges in our region, with the ambition to be working with every one.
To support this region-wide work, we are expanding the Skills Team at the North East LEP, with the recent appointment of Neil Willis as Education Challenge Project Manager, spearheading the Next Generation Learning project, focussing on the integration of careers into the curriculum and bringing the world of work to life in the classroom, with the aim of improving social mobility for young people.
In the next few weeks we will be announcing the appointment of a Careers Hub Facilitator and a College Hub Facilitator to work alongside schools and colleges as part of the new North East Ambition: Careers Hub not only will the Hub support schools and colleges in achieving the Benchmarks but the North East has also been chosen as the location for a prestigious Cornerstone Hub, providing support to other UK regions through learning visits to the North East, as the Benchmarks are rolled out across the UK.
We’ll also be increasing the number of Enterprise Coordinators who provide crucial support to schools, colleges and Enterprise Advisors.
Working closely with our local authority colleagues is key. These relationships and all our regional education sector networks mean we can work together to move in the right direction, with the ultimate aim that every young person in the North East can identify routes to a successful working life, has the opportunity from an early age to have exposure to the world of work and meets people along the way who inspire and motivate them.
We want our young people to understand, alongside formal academic skills, the value of life and work experiences and build abilities such as selfmanagement, team working, business awareness, problem solving, presentation and interview skills.
Being prepared for the world of work, having clear options and support from parents, schools and businesses will deliver successful outcomes and destinations for our young people.
Find out more about the North East LEP's work at www.nelep.co.uk/skills
