Made in Sheffield!

During this period, where resources are under increasing pressure, we need to create a framework and pathway through learning for all our young people that will equip them with the skills they need to enter, thrive and succeed in the world of work. We all know that businesses and schools working in partnership can have substantial benefits for everybody involved and most importantly young people can gain awareness and experience of the workplace. In Sheffield, in common with the rest of the country, businesses continue to identify the problems they face recruiting young people with the skills and attitudes they need.

What is increasingly obvious is that over the years there have been and still are vast numbers of people, organisations and businesses doing valuable and interesting work trying to build partnerships, creating project and resources and working with schools on an ad-hoc unco-ordinated and unstructured basis. What is also obvious is that these efforts and resources have had little impact on what really matters… the skills, attitudes and knowledge young people have when they leave school, college or university.

We need to re-imagine, rethink and reconnect these efforts to create a curriculum in our schools that works. A curriculum that has, as one of its objectives, to create work ready young people with an agreed and progressive set of skills and attitudes. A curriculum that provides an entitlement for all young people based on what works and establishing a world of work learning pathway through school, college and university. A curriculum that draws in all the available resources and connects them powerfully and productively around a single consistent and coherent approach.

THE CUTLERS’ MADE IN SHEFFIELD PROGRAMME

This challenge led the Cutlers’ Company to approach Sheffield City Council to discuss and agree what action could be taken by businesses, schools and organisations working in this area, to remove the barriers and address the challenges. Sheffield needs to be the nation’s foremost learning city with the best skilled workforce.

The ambition was:

·      for employers to join with schools, colleges and academies in shaping a new curriculum and in forging centres of academic and vocational excellence that are explicitly aligned with the skill needs of the growth sectors of the local economy;

·      for a curriculum that is imaginative, well taught, grounded in the basics and focused on developing the skills that our children, young people and employers will need for success in the twenty-first century;

·      for a curriculum where the hallmark of learning is academic rigour and where there is inspiring teaching that releases creativity, innovation and promotes the adaptability that will be increasingly demanded of workers in the new economy;

·      for a learning system that identifies and celebrates the talents, interests and ambitions of every child and young person and a curriculum  where there is the opportunity for every one of them to develop their potential through ‘enrichment programmes’ linked to the world of work throughout their time at school or college

·      for a learning city where cultivating a new generation of highly skilled young people capable of carrying through Sheffield’s economic transformation is the foremost priority of the city, its employers and its learning institutions.

‘CURRICULUM BUILDING BLOCKS’!

The Cutlers’ Made in Sheffield approach aims to develop:

• Academic and technical excellence;
• Learning and basic skills;
• Creativity, innovation and enterprise;
• Higher level skills;
• Employability and ‘World of work’ skills;
• Resilience, character and grit.