BEEP: aligning education and employment in Berkshire

Skills Adviser James Hobson recently helped a Berkshire Grammar School to host a careers fair where students had an opportunity to meet with local employers and learn more about the sectors they work in, the skills they look for and the careers they offer.

This is par for the course for James. As a Skills Advisor on our Berkshire Education Employer Partnership (BEEP), he helps to align education with employers in Berkshire, to inspire and educate young people about local careers and training and to help prevent the loss of future talent to nearby London.

James’s work involves engaging local businesses to create a dialogue with young people locally. As he says, “Employers can decide what activities they take on and how much time they can allocate to BEEP. There’s a huge range of levels of involvement and commitment. One thing that works well is when employers put on workshops in schools where they talk about specific careers. That’s great, because when they do this they can promote their own apprenticeships to an interested audience. Or they may want to hold jobs fairs to build awareness and inspire students to become interested in their industry.”

A student could go from not knowing what your company does to meeting you at a careers fair in their school, being inspired to learn more and doing some work shadowing at your local site.

James believes that employability partnerships can be part of a long term recruitment strategy. He says, “a student could go from not knowing what your company does to meeting you at a careers fair in their school, being inspired to learn more and doing some work shadowing at your local site. Now their ambition is to get an apprenticeship with you. And although that’s a blue sky scenario, there are other versions of the story that are also successful: young people losing their anxiety about the workplace by talking to local employers; education centres getting better acquainted with local businesses and building a rapport. All of that is fantastic stuff that benefits the local economy in the long run.”

 

Skill Up Bucks: our Buckinghamshire project

 

We have a community of employers and students and we can be out there looking for opportunities to link them, giving employers a far bigger reach than they’d otherwise have.

Lead Brokerage Adviser Emma Whiting believes Adviza’s employability programmes could save local employers thousands on recruitment fees. “We have a community of employers and students and we can be out there looking for opportunities to link them, giving employers a far bigger reach than they’d otherwise have, especially SMEs,” she says.

Emma works on our Skill Up Bucks programme (SUB), which has a similar remit to BEEP, but in Buckinghamshire. She believes there is a social mobility aspect to both employer partnership projects. “We’re dealing with SEND students too, and creating opportunities for them that they might otherwise miss,” she says. For Emma, it’s important for businesses today to have a positive impact within their communities. What this looks like can be different for every employer. As she says, “Lots of business have Corporate Social Responsibility targets or need to demonstrate their community impact in bids and tenders. But aside from that, community outreach is a vital form of self-regulation that says a lot about the potential longevity of an organisation. If you’re saying ‘we’re here to support and be a part of our local community,’ it says a lot about the intent and the vision of the board.”

Is any business too small to be an Adviza project partner?

No. Any local business can get involved with our employer partnerships. There’s a sliding scale of how involved you can be and the resource it will require from you. If you can sign up to our partnerships to say you’ll get involved in some way, you’re adding value.

What's in it for employers?

• Promote your apprenticeships and training opportunities.
• “Gene-pool” future talent: promote yourself as an employer of choice, raise awareness of your brand and careers.
• Great for your corporate social responsibility, community outreach and publicity.
• Greater access to/awareness of learning & development, training and coaching companies that can help you to upskill and retain employees.
• Help to retain key skills in your region.
• Have a hand in shaping the future of your local workforce.
• Increase your sense of any employability gaps that may exist in student populations and have a say in how they are bridged.
• Identify or create candidates or future employees with high potential.
• Learn more about the concerns of young people and what they want to understand from prospective employers. Adjust your recruitment messaging, employer brand and value proposition accordingly.
• Understand more about the talent and hiring landscape in your region.

How to participate

• Speak to schools about your key skill requirements, careers and cultures.
• Have Zoom or in-person talks with individuals or groups of young people about what your business does, your culture, why you’re a great employer and what skills you look for.
• Give an individual or group tour of your office (in-person or via Zoom), talk generally about what working life is like.
• Visit school assemblies (in-person or remotely) to talk about your company.
• Present to students.
• Show your recruitment videos in schools.
• Offer work experience, mentoring or work shadowing.
• Hold “challenge” events relating to your sector.
• Offer apprenticeships, T-Levels etc.
• Talk to young people and teachers about the skills that school leavers typically lack, and how they can build these. Even better, provide young people with opportunities that help them to do this.
• Hold mock interviews and learning feedback with young people in your area.
• Attend or hold careers fairs.

How to register with SUB or BEEP

Employers in Berkshire can register for BEEP by completing this online form: BEEP registration form

Employers in Buckinghamshire can register for SUB by completing this online form: SUB registration form

Once you complete these forms you are under no obligation to get involved, but are encouraged to participate with BEEP or SUB at your convenience. You can choose:

• How you work with us (including the option of participating in a one-off activity)
• The kind of opportunities we present to you
• How we communicate with you about them
• ...and pretty much anything else about how, when and why our partnership can work for you!

Our partnerships are client-led and we try to make it as easy as possible for employers to participate. It’s important to us that employers are happy, so we’re here to support and facilitate any activities you want to take part in.

 

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