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4. Transitions to Employment
Issues
Projects to ease the transition to work have been part of the work of regeneration agencies for far longer than any other kind of learning intervention. School-industry links were central to Compacts during the 1980s and remain at the heart of Education Business Partnerships.
Unemployment is the norm for many communities served by SRB schemes. Many young people therefore have little opportunity to gather even vicarious experience of work from family or peers. The case for structured school-industry links is as strong as ever. Many of the projects in this study tread familiar ground.
Tackling the Issues
There are perhaps three distinctive features of the projects reviewed here which distinguish them from those examined elsewhere.
- Work experience is likely to be most important to young people who live in areas of high structural unemployment and have few, if any, working role models in their immediate circle of friends and family.
- Much of the demotivation experienced by young people comes from their perception that, since employment opportunities are limited, there is little point in educational qualifications. A number of the school-industry projects set out to show the links between skills, qualifications and employability.
- There is perhaps a greater stress on inserting more vocational (and non-school-based) content in the curriculum.
This theme of tackling routes and attitudes to work - and the learning consequences - is present in a number of wide-ranging projects.
- Adur Industry First's Education to Industry: This project:
- makes teachers aware of the needs of local employers;
- identifies skills shortages in Adur and works with schools to inform and prepare students to meet the shortages;
- involves local employers in projects to raise young people's achievements and to prepare them more effectively for employment;
- makes local employers aware of the possibilities within the school curriculum; and
- improves the image of manufacturing among pupils and parents.
- Speke Garston School Business Links in Liverpool provides a relatively conventional range of school-industry activities, including:
- visits to workplaces;
- industry speakers, whose input is linked to the National Curriculum; and
- project work, with company personnel working with schools.
This work has been underway in secondary schools since 1990 and has been extended into primary schools with the help of the SRB.
In addition to the benefits to schools and students, the project is valued by employers, who see advantages in the development of their staff and in their sharper appreciation of the local labour market. The Partnership already works with large local firms such as Fords at Halewood, Eli Lilly and Dista Products and expects 250 companies to be involved.
- Coventry and Warwickshire Education Business Partnership is also an extension of standard Education Business Partnership activities that pre-date the SRB. An interesting feature is the series of Partnership Centres based in local companies and providing a resource for schools.
- Northern Arc Regeneration Scheme, Bristol: Two linked projects, the Guidance Project and the Employment Project aim to meet the strategic objective: 'to enhance the employment prospects, education and skills of local people, particularly the young and those at disadvantage, and promote equality of opportunity by:
- offering professional, informed and independent education, training and careers guidance, particularly for those who are unemployed and the low-waged;
- referrals to other support; and
- the provision of accredited guidance skills training within the area.
The Guidance Project provides relatively standard guidance services, but reflects an interesting rationale developed by Learning Partnership West.
- Partner organisations identified that there were insufficient guidance staff to meet the needs of residents.
- Additional guidance would help support other activities in the area, such as the Youth Start mentoring project and Community Education's provision.
- Many individuals who work in the community (in various capacities, including as volunteers) already undertake guidance, but without training or accreditation.
The Employment Project is similar to the Joblink and Jobsmatch projects initiated by Task Forces in the 1980s and continued under City Challenge. It is designed to: '…provide a link between unemployed people with skills and employers with job vacancies and, by using customised and existing training provision, equip people for the jobs which are available.'
Although based at a Job Centre, the project operates on an outreach basis, with the brokerage taking place at drop-in centres in the community. It originated as a scheme to promote the use of local labour in construction, but then broadened its focus.
Key Good Practice Lessons
Various elements of good practice emerge from these schemes, some of which are reflected in recent or new major programmes like the New Deal.
- In many areas unemployment is the norm and becomes a barrier both to pursuing employment and placing any value on learning.
- The importance of work experience, work shadowing and a structured approach to the school-work transition is clear.
- The concentration of unemployment, low skills and qualifications that characterise many of the areas on which the SRB is focused often leads to 'postcode discrimination'. Involving employers in school-industry programmes helps overcome mutual suspicions.
- The prospect of work - i.e. a specific vacancy - has been shown in numerous Joblink or Jobsmatch schemes to be a powerful motivator for learning. The customised training programmes being developed directly with employers by Northern Arc offer further confirmation of the 'work factor'.
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