How do you bridge the gap between school and work? ? Cambridge ...

13 November 2012

This week the UK growth report by Lord Heseltine ?No Stone Unturned? has caught our eye.

The report looks at, amongst other things, how best to equip young people with the skills needed to enter the world of work and address the current (real or imagined) deficit.

Here are our top takeouts:

The report champions greater business involvement in schools stating, ?Employers could be offering a range of services, including work experience, careers advice, work place visits and inspirational talks from leading local business people.?? It goes on to suggest the board of governors in secondary schools should include two influential local employers.

Lord Heseltine also suggests schools need to be incentivised to equip pupils with employability skills; highlighting the introduction of the ?Destination Measures? index as a positive step towards this. ?It?s understandable that schools measured on attainment of A*- C grades focus on what?s needed to pass exams rather than preparing pupils for their next steps so anything which widens the evaluation criteria must surely be welcomed.

He identifies that more needs to be done to encourage FE providers to offer training which more closely mirrors the needs of the economy, arguing that the current system which responds to student demand leads to ??a mismatch between the skills being taught and the skills that employers are demanding or the jobs likely to be on offer?. Of course it makes sense that students should be encouraged to study courses more likely to lead to employment, what?s less clear is how this can be achieved. You can lead a student to a course, but you can?t make them study it surely?

Finally, the report argues for devolvement of funding and responsibility to a local level giving LEPs and Chambers of Commerce the role of ?defining and articulating the needs of local businesses?.? Again, giving local areas greater flexibility to deal with the challenges particular to them makes a lot of sense in theory, but making this work in practice would require a huge overhaul of the current system of funding and, for the moment at least, seems out of step with the current government thinking.

Whilst it?s encouraging to see the debate about employability gaining ground, the recommendations in the report are some way off becoming reality.

To see for yourselves, read the full report at the BIS website: ?No stone unturned in the pursuit of growth.

For advice on employability skills in your business now and the new Cambridge Employability Skills Framework,?contact us.

Source: http://www.cambridge-hitachi.com/csr/2012/11/how-do-you-bridge-the-gap-between-school-and-work/

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