Opportunities for Business
There are a number of ways that businesses can become involved with schools. This will largely be determined by the interests and needs of your staff and the time they have to invest.
SBC Programmes
Closing the Gap: This is a comprehensive programme where businesses form part of a Business Advisory Group that works with an individual school. Further further information please see the Closing the Gap page.
Workwise: This is a self-contained course designed to help students aged 14 and above improve their personal skills and self-knowledge, ready for the world of work. It is run by staff from a private-sector business. It takes place either on business or school premises, and can be fitted around other commitments. It is particularly effective for students who might be disengaged or at risk of not entering the workforce or further training.
Workwise: This is a self-contained course designed to help students aged 14 and above improve their personal skills and self-knowledge, ready for the world of work. It is run by staff from a private-sector business. It takes place either on business or school premises, and can be fitted around other commitments. It is particularly effective for students who might be disengaged or at risk of not entering the workforce or further training.
SBC Education and Youth Employability Leadership Group
SBC will shortly launch the Education and Youth Employability Leadership group. The aim of the group is to bring together a number of small, medium and larger businesses to drive forward the youth employability agenda. The group will meet four times a year and will play a key role in influencing and shaping how the business sector become involved in youth employability and the link to the CSR agenda.
School Partnerships
Forming a strategic partnership with schools provides an opportunity for businesses to support employability skills through:
- Job Preparation Skills – Helping young people to look at what preparing for work involves, supporting their CV Writing and Interview techniques, conducting mock interviews and giving feedback.
- Pupil Mentoring - Forming a longer term relationship with a young person significantly increases their employability prospects. It also provides an opportunity for staff members to improve their coaching and mentoring experience.
- Carousel –The carousels are similar to career days however, each company is asked to run two 20 minute sessions with groups of around 20/25 pupils talking about different roles within their company and answering questions from the pupils.
- Job Shadowing – this gives pupils a chance to visit companies and see what actually goes on in work on a day to day basis.
- Motivational talks – These involve a range of employed people coming to talk about how they got to where they are today, the challenges and rewards and the importance of employability skills.
- Teacher/Industry Mentoring – This gives both teachers and businesses the chance to gain knowledge and skills. Examples of this have been a head teacher linking in with the HR Department of a large retailer, specifically to see how they tackle motivation etc. A technical teacher linking in with the CAD technicians in a construction company.
- Financial Planning and Money Matters – Encouraging responsible borrowing and financial planning is a priority for many financial institutions. Many of our members run programmes for schools around managing money and budgeting.
- Parent Evenings – In some schools the companies involved give 10 minute presentations to parents, letting them know what the Business is doing in their school and why employability skills are so important to them as potential employers
