What is it?
A programme developed together with local businesses to enable students in Year 9 to learn and gain key skills in a business environment. The programme is delivered by managers from the participating companies supported by school staff.

Aims of the Programme:
To develop mutually beneficial and sustainable partnerships with business which will give students the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to enter employment and further / higher education.

Objectives

• To develop employability skills by learning more about the world of work and the expectations of employers
• To raise student aspirations whilst building confidence and self esteem
• To enhance the learning process and provide professional development opportunities for teachers and colleagues from business partners
•  To develop and accredit Key Skills in Communication, Presentation Techniques, Listening, Teamwork, Improving Own Learning and Performance and Problem Solving.

Target Group: Initially piloted with 20 Year 9 Students and one business partner in 1999. The programme has now grown to involve 100 Year 9 students and five business partners.

Curriculum Links: The programme is co-ordinated by a teacher with responsibility for Key Skills. Students work towards the ‘Working With Others’ Key Skills. During the programme all the business partners cover ‘location factors’ to link in with KS3 Geography. This work provides the focus for the presentation. In addition the Careers department have also supported the process in terms of applying for a place.

Programme Design and Delivery: Students are invited to apply for a place on the programme by completing an application form. Students are then selected on the basis of previously identified selection criteria. At New Heys these were 90% attendance, 90% punctuality, behaviour record, attitude to work as assessed by the Form Teacher and Equal Opportunities. Once selected the students are placed into groups of twenty. Each group is allocated to a business partner. The group attend company premises for five one day sessions and one after school session over the first two terms of Year 9.

Initially the school, working with the Education Action Zone, provided a framework for the programme. Individual business partners have been able to customise the content to take account of their own resources and expertise. A typical programme would be:

• Introduction - including aims of the programme, information about the company, tour of the premises and preferred learning style questionnaire
• Communication Skills - Methods of communication, advantages and disadvantages of different methods and demonstration of different methods. At the end of this session a presentation task is set for the students to complete during the following session.
• Presentation Skills – Practise using presentation equipment, hints and tips for successful presentations, individual presentations followed by written and verbal feedback.
• Team Building – Importance of team skills, roles and responsibilities within a team, team building activities and games.
• Planning and Problem Solving – Thought Showering uses, benefits and rules. Mind mapping. Problem solving activities.

All sessions are concluded with a debriefing and evaluation exercise.

During the summer term a celebration evening is organised by the students to demonstrate the skills developed over the programme. Representatives from the business partners, school staff, parents and governors are all invited. Students who successfully complete all sessions are presented with a certificate in Key Skills, accredited by the Royal Sun Alliance Key Skills Portfolio.

Educational Impact: Students who have participated have gained the following experiences;

• Experience of completing an application in a competitive selection process.
• An insight into the workings of a local business including the variety of career opportunities.
• An opportunity to work with local employers and raise awareness of employer expectations.
• An opportunity to develop key skills using a real life context for learning.
• An opportunity to re-motivate some students who do not always recognise the relevance of school work to future employment opportunities.
  

Challenges and Issues relating to the programme

Financial Considerations: It is important to identify all likely costs at the outset these will include transport, hospitality and stationery. In the New Heys Programme business partners fund the hospitality, stationary and training materials. They also provide the trainers to plan and deliver the programme and also. The school fund part of the transport, provide staff to accompany groups and plan and co-ordinate the programme. The Education Action Zone have also contributed to the transport funding.

Timing: The programme involves participants being out of school for five days. Due regard needs to be made of examination dates e.g. SATs so as to cause minimum disruption to preparation.

Time for business partners is also an issue. The sessions run from 10am – 2pm so that business partners do not lose a full day.

It is important for all partners to have a clear understanding of how the business and the school operate. For example the busy times of year for the businesses, when they would be unable to offer sessions. Business partners need to be aware of the enormous problems caused for the school if a session is cancelled at very short notice.

Working with different partners has meant that it has taken time to make sure that students receive similar quality experiences whichever business delivers the programme.

Evaluation is conducted following each programme. Comments from students, teachers and business colleagues overwhelmingly indicate the positive impact of the programme. However it has been difficult to show quantitatively the impact on standards because of the difficulty of isolating the impact of this programme from the other schemes which are being delivered in the drive to raise standards.
The next development will be devising a programme for those students not selected, or making the programme an entitlement so that all students can take part.