‘BUILDING THE WORLD OF WORK TOGETHER’

In their report ‘Business and schools: Building the world of work together’ published in 2012, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills reinforces the findings of previous research into this area. The report identifies the enormous amount of good practice where businesses and schools are working in partnership and highlights the different types of activities, which businesses and schools are doing to build the world of work into the school curriculum. We all know that businesses and schools all over the country are working together to provide young people with a greater awareness and understanding of the world of work, including the opportunities to access the experience of work that businesses are looking for when recruiting.

However the report also makes it very clear that there is no room for complacency because their research highlights that the barriers and challenges faced by businesses in building partnerships and working together with schools are still current. Many businesses are actively working with schools. All say that they could do more and that more businesses need to get involved. Many schools are creating world of work opportunities for their students but they all recognise that more schools need to understand the importance of business engagement in education.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To strengthen the findings and address these barriers “businesses and schools should build partnerships at a local level” to:

• ·      enhance and enrich the delivery of education through a range of activities for example through businesses providing curriculum materials, arranging site visits, carrying out talks in schools;
• ·      increase the flexibility of the timing of work experience opportunities so that more quality placements can be arranged throughout the school year and can be integrated throughout education
• ·      provide up to date information about careers in their sectors and raise the profile of careers 


To enable this to happen: 


• ·      More businesses should work with schools to make them aware of the relevance of business engagement to enhance and enrich the delivery of education, and put resources into working with schools.
• ·      More schools should recognise the relevance of engaging with businesses to enhance and enrich the delivery of education, and put resources into working with businesses.
• ·      Governments and relevant organisations should play their respective parts in removing the identified barriers around access to simple guidance and support.”