KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD OF WORK, SKILLS AND WORK EXPERIENCE MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE!

The Cutlers’ ‘Made in Sheffield’ programme is a consistent and coherent, employer-led approach. It develops, in young people, the skills needed for employability and the world of work.

We aim, over the next three years, to create a sustainable approach that will reach young people across the Sheffield City Region. We aim to manage the transition to ‘Better Learners, Better Workers’ by expanding to schools in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham whilst maintaining engagement with Sheffield schools. Sustainability beyond this transitional year will come from economies of scale as the scheme grows and develops and funding from schools, the LEP, the local authorities and partner organisations.

The two original sectors, the Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Sector and the NHS Sector, will be maintained alongside the Construction Sector as the core offer and additional sectors linked to local priorities will be established. The number of schools involved with each sector will vary but, to ensure the most efficient and effective use of all available resources, they will average 3 schools per sector. The number of young people working in each sector will vary but, to ensure the most efficient and effective use of all available resources, they will average 36 ambassadors per cohort and wherever possible sessions will be generic and allow cross sector and cross school working. Feedback from employers and schools has suggested that we need a more flexible approach in Year 9 so we have developed two approaches… the current approach which exposes students in Y9 to the sector through a series of half-termly sessions and a taster approach where students in Y9 experience a taste of different sectors before focusing on a single sector in Y10.

Moving forward, to ensure that we have a sustainable value for money approach, sector programmes will be more school based, more generic and more managed and will include:

• School-based Taster Sessions
• Recruitment, interview and selection
• Generic Team-building sessions
• Generic Skills Matter sessions
• Generic World of Work sessions
• Projects/challenges
• Sector/Workplace visits
• Work Experience
• School-based Coaching and Monitoring sessions
• School-based Mentoring sessions

If you want to find out more about our 'Better Learners, Better Workers' programme you can contact me at chris@brilliant-learning.co.uk.