Employability in Schools and Colleges
In our latest employabiliy blogpost ARGUO Education take a look at the current state-of-play with employability in schools and colleges.
In recent years reports issued by business leaders through organisations such as the CBI, Institute of Directors and British Chamber of Commerce have highlighted the fact that students leaving school and higher education are not equipped with the skills to make them ‘work ready’.
When we talk about employability we mean the possession of skills, knowledge, behaviour and an understanding of the commercial sector that will allow school leavers or graduates to make a positive contribution to their organisations soon after starting work.
Over time the role of developing employability skills in young people has increasingly fallen on the education sector. Students from primary school to the most exalted of our higher education institutions are offered a wide range of initiatives, activities, training and mentoring to create and enhance their generic skills.
In a series of reports, Geoff Mason and his colleagues at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research found that students employment prospects benefited more from attending well structured work experience programmes than any training delivered in the classroom.
Research commissioned by the House of Commons, Business, Innovation and Skills and Education Committees published in November 2015 highlighted the fact that the expectation that young people will develop their employability skills whilst in full time education. This has resulted in employers in many cases, reducing the opportunities they offer for work based learning to potential recruits.
The development of the Apprenticeship offer and increasing support to students taking vocational qualifications means there is substantial support being offered by employers to support young people entering the work place via this route. The introduction of 16 – 19 Study programmes in 2013 highlighted the need for all students in this cohort, including A Level students, to undertake;
‘Meaningful work experience (related to the vocational area) and/or other non-qualification activity to develop students’ personal skills and/or prepare them for employment, training or higher/further education’.
Some areas of study and training such as Tech Level Qualifications and Traineeships include a substantial work experience element. However at ARGUO Education we are aware that many students studying academic subjects at A Level do not receive the structured work placements and support that their contemporaries taking vocational courses enjoy.
For this reason we are working in partnership with a number of employers, schools and colleges to devise and deliver bespoke programmes which will allow all students in the 16 – 19 cohort to develop and enhance their skills to support their entry into further education and training or employment.
The main elements of these programmes may be found in the majority of initiatives currently being delivered, but by working with schools we are able to identify the students who will benefit most from this support and tailor the delivery of the programme to their needs.
This also means supporting the employers who offer work placements to create meaningful opportunities and elements of support. This can have beneficial results for the companies working with local schools by raising their profile in the community and potentially identifying future employees.
ARGUO Education has set itself the objective to support the education sector in delivering meaningful and practical employability education for students. We work with schools and colleges to develop resource effective programmes that add value to students and prospective employers.
If you would like to discuss any employability issues please feel free to get in touch.
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.arguoeducation.com