Support the delivery of primary, secondary and further education

Businesses are increasingly assisting local schools and colleges with the provision of education and services to young people.

Supporting a local school or college can benefit both the education provider and your business. Your staff will benefit from improved communication, planning and presentation skills, and your business will gain greater exposure within the local community. Young people will gain advantages from the improvements made to their education.

This guide explains the ways that your business can support primary, secondary, special and further education. It covers how you can offer leadership and governance. It also explains ways that you can support the curriculum and other working environments, as well as how to support your own workers with children.

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Leadership and governance programmes

There can be a number of benefits to your business if you get involved in supporting education. For more information, see the page in this guide on the benefits of offering leadership and governance.

You can support primary, secondary or further education and there are several programmes that will allow you to do this, depending on your level of interest.

Transition to Teaching

Transition to Teaching is a programme that promotes new careers in teaching science, maths and IT for employees who are considering a mid to late career change. This can provide a good opportunity for any of your employees who are considering changing career and allows you to actively support them in their decision. It will also help a new generation develop science, maths and IT skills, and create strong education business links.

Registering your business for the Transition to Teaching programme can benefit your business in a number of ways, such as:

• enhancing your business’ reputation – by showing your good practice in human resources, and actively assisting staff to pursue a career of their choice
• consolidating links with schools and colleges – having ex-employees in the classroom allows you to develop strong links with potential future employees and shows a commitment to corporate responsibility
• helping build a skilled workforce of the future
• contributing to success – supporting the programme will help to sustain UK organisations and maintain the global competitiveness of the UK employment base

Find Transition to Teaching employers information on the Training and Development Agency for Schools (tda) website- Opens in a new window.

Teach First

Through the Teach First programme, ‘exceptional’ graduates from universities can be placed in challenging schools for two years’ intensive training and teaching practice. Many employers find that deferring graduate’s employment to complete the programme allows them to develop important skills for starting work.

There are three ‘strands’ to the programme, which can help graduates to become effective leaders in the classroom. This is a transferrable skill for any business field. The three strands of the programme are:

• Leading learning – participants learn how to lead a classroom and raise the achievements of pupils they teach. This teaches them the fundamentals necessary for leading workers in a business environment.
• Leading people – participants learn how they can effectively lead and manage individuals in both academic and non-academic situations.
• Leading organisations – participants are taught how businesses work, possible challenges they may face, and how they make an impact in their career.

You can find information on the Teach First programme on the Teach First website- Opens in a new window.

Mentoring

You could also consider setting up workers as mentors to support head teachers, college principals and senior teachers, and even school or college students. Mentoring is a structured and trusting relationship that is created to offer guidance, support and encouragement to help develop the competence and character of the learner.

A mentor’s main tasks are usually – though not exclusively – the following:

• identifying learning goals
• supporting the learner’s progression
• providing guidance, feedback and direction
• assessing, appraising or accrediting the learner’s practices

Business mentors often find that they enhance their own skills in coaching and developing people by mentoring those from other types of business.

Professional development placements (PDPs)

You should consider sharing your business expertise through various PDPs for school and college staff. These placements usually last from one to five days and are flexibly arranged around a duration and time to suit the teacher and the school. They should offer planned, structured and focused learning objectives to benefit the learner as much as possible.

PDPs can benefit your business by:

• raising its profile in the community
• motivating employees through interaction with education professionals
• creating and developing a social link with a local school

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Benefits of offering leadership and governance

Using your business to offer leadership and governance to schools or colleges can be a mutually beneficial agreement.

You and your staff may have relevant skills and experience to support the leadership or governance of a school or college. As schools and colleges are complex organisations with large financial budgets, they can provide you or your employees with opportunities to develop business skills – eg by serving on governing bodies or mentoring school and college leaders.

Governing bodies of schools or colleges often need members with skills and experience in building or running successful organisations, or with financial, legal or other business-related skills. The School Governors’ One-Stop Shop (SGOSS) can provide information on whether you or your employees have the relevant transferable management skills or experience to volunteer as a governor. Find information on volunteering as a school governor on the SGOSS website- Opens in a new window.

You can support employees who wish to be volunteer governors by:

• endorsing their application
• offering reasonable time off for them to attend governors’ meetings
• recognising the skills that they can develop

You can find information on setting up a school governor’s programme on the Business in the Community (BITC) website- Opens in a new window.

You could also consider becoming a sponsor for an underperforming school, helping it to become an Academy. This allows you to get involved but doesn’t need you to support an individual employee to volunteer as a governor. As a sponsor, you would set up an Academy Trust (a charity) which would appoint the governors for the Academy.

Find information on sponsoring an Academy on the Department for Education website- Opens in a new window.

There are a number of other ways your business can offer leadership and guidance to local schools or colleges. For specific information on ways to get involved, see the page in this guide on leadership and governance programmes.

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Improving the employability and enterprise of young people

Schools and colleges can help young people improve their knowledge of the world of work, and provide enterprise education – encouraging them to be creative, innovative and enterprising. Your business can assist schools and colleges to develop their pupils’ enterprise and employability skills in a number of ways.

Work experience and structured visits

By providing work experience for a young person you can introduce them to a range of experiences in your business. Work experience is a placement with your business where a young person carries out tasks or duties similar to those your employees would perform. By carrying out these activities, the pupil will be learning about business and developing their employability skills.

By providing up to ten days work experience – either as a block or by the day – you can help introduce them to the world of work and, in particular, your specific business sector. You could also consider running shorter work-based visits for groups of pupils to develop their understanding of the workplace.

When providing work experience, you must follow health and safety regulations – eg providing insurance or carrying out additional health and safety checks for dangerous jobs. An Education Business Partnership Organisation (EBPO) can carry out health and safety checks to ensure you meet all your legal requirements.

Industry days

Your business could select a ‘visiting expert’ who could attend the school or college to give short talks on your business or industry or specialism. They can also assist in lesson time – under supervision of a teacher – and run a workshop around your business’ area of expertise.

Enterprise Activities

As a business adviser to a group of young people, you can introduce them to commercial knowledge and skills. This can have an important influence in channelling their enthusiasm into running a successful business enterprise, or give them a general interest for a specific sector of work.

Mentoring

You could mentor a young person by building a structured and rewarding relationship, offering guidance, support and encouragement and developing their skills and character.

Mentoring pupils can help to raise their aspirations – particularly with disadvantaged pupils. You can consider getting involved in any of the following schemes:

• EBPOs
• Community Service Volunteers (CSV) – by volunteering through the CVS scheme you can introduce a young person to business life and help them progress to further education, employment or even set up in business
• Business in the Community – the Student Mentoring Programme allows young people to build self-confidence and link experiences to the world of work
• The Prince’s Trust – working specifically with disadvantaged and disengaged young people, your business can provide them with experience of the world of business and will provide objective advice on your business plan
• on-line mentoring

EBPOs

EBPOs work with schools, colleges and employers to offer services such as involving employers in work-related learning, establishing and maintaining partnerships with employers and education centres, and carrying out health and safety checks for work experience placements. They can also help by:

• setting up employer talks
• vetting, training and briefing volunteer mentors from local businesses
• creating professional development placements for teachers
• supporting and organising activities and events
• giving employers options to suit their circumstances and areas of interest

You can find your local EBPO on the Institute for Education Business Excellence (iebe) website- Opens in a new window.

Work shadowing

Allowing a young person to shadow you or an employee for a day enables them to see a particular job in action and develop an understanding of your industry. This gives them an insight into the day-to-day working of your business and helps them to decide whether they want to pursue a potential career in that specific field of work.

Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are important for the success of a large number of businesses, and are an effective way for young people to develop their skills and employability. An apprenticeship involves on-the-job training – in addition to at least 16 hours paid employment a week – which leads to a nationally recognised industry-specific qualification.

Apprenticeship schemes can provide a number of benefits to your business, such as:

• improving staff skills – by training young starters in a specific skill, you can broaden the overall skill base of your business
• reducing staff training costs – eg off-job training costs are subsidised (in full, or part) by the National Apprenticeship Service
• competitive advantages – as apprenticeships can be relatively flexible, you can tailor your apprentice’s expertise to exploit business growth opportunities
• general financial benefits – apprenticeship costs can be recouped by your business relatively quickly and, once they are, the returns on your investment can be significant
• apprenticeship wage subsidies for small employers and financial incentives for larger employers to encourage apprenticeships in their supply chains

Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes, so if you run an apprenticeship for young people, you will be required to structure their learning. A learning provider can assist you to work out:

• which apprenticeship is correct for your business
• how apprenticeships can help you
• a training plan for your apprentice
• how to manage training and evaluation
• national quality standards and how to meet them

Find information on apprenticeships on the Apprenticeships website- Opens in a new window.

Young people not in education, employment or training

Young people not in education, employment or training may struggle to develop skills or increase their employability in any other way, which leaves them at particular risk of failure in adult life. You can help this group of young people by getting involved with schools, colleges, training providers and third sector organisations to:

• provide work-based learning, work experience opportunities or work tasters
• contribute to careers education, mentoring and advice programmes
• spend time seeing first hand what young people can achieve
• offer opportunities to young people and help them progress
• support young people already in a job to continue in learning

These types of assistance could help improve your business’ standing in the community, develop your staff’s skill-base and find new employees.

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Supporting the curriculum through your business

Your business can influence what children and young people learn and help them to relate their education to the real world and business. By participating in certain projects, you can help improve children’s and young people’s future prospects and also improve your reputation in the community.

Employee voluntary work

You could consider working with schools to help improve the reading and maths skills of five to seven year olds. By encouraging your staff to work with local primary schools – as reading or number volunteers – you can make a big impact on young people’s knowledge, skills and attitudes during secondary education.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) assistance

If your business has a background in a STEM sector, you can help your local school shape the curriculum. By offering your own experience and knowledge, you can help young people gain the knowledge or skills required for future employment in these business sectors.

Getting involved in education can also benefit your employees – they can find development opportunities and build on their communication, planning and presentation skills.

The STEMNET scheme helps businesses to get involved with education by providing the following programmes:

• STEM Clubs – after school clubs that complement the curriculum but are based on practical experiments, investigation, discussion and reflection. Find STEM Clubs information on the STEM Clubs website- Opens in a new window.
• STEM Ambassadors – businesses from STEM backgrounds can volunteer as inspiring role models for young people to show them how STEM is practiced in the world of work. You can register as a STEM ambassador on the STEMNET website- Opens in a new window.

You can find information on STEM programmes on the STEMNET website- Opens in a new window.

Business Language Champions (BLC)

The BLC programme supports businesses that work with schools to encourage young people to understand the benefits of learning languages. Businesses in a variety of sectors are encouraging schools to demonstrate the importance of languages and intercultural skills to their pupils.

Your business could benefit from joining the BLC programme. For example you could:

• develop your employee volunteering programme and corporate social responsibility activities in an innovative way
• develop your employees’ language skills and enthusiasm
• increase employee satisfaction and motivation
• potentially develop the skills of your future employees
• increase your profile both locally and nationally

You can get involved in the BLC programme by:

• talking to local schools about languages that are important to your business
• hosting school visits to your workplace to see how languages are being used
• acting as a language mentor to students
• providing work experience placements and visits to UK and overseas offices

Find BLC information on the National Centre for Languages website- Opens in a new window.

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Supporting parents, the wider community and disadvantaged groups

Your business can directly support local primary, secondary and further education and childcare but there are also several other programmes that you can get involved in.

Helping disadvantaged and vulnerable groups

By working with schools and colleges, your business can improve the ambition and opportunities for young people with special educational needs, disabilities and other disadvantaged groups.

The Support and Help in Education (SHINE) programme helps fund educational support programmes for children and young people from disadvantaged parts of London and Manchester. SHINE supports programmes that concentrate on core educational subjects to help further young people’s educational needs.

You can find out how to get involved with SHINE on the SHINE website- Opens in a new window.

Improving play and youth facilities

You could consider developing or creating new facilities – or refurbishing any you may have – to improve play and youth facilities. Access to safe and enjoyable activities that encourage learning and development is important for young children’s development.

The Myplace programme provides grants to businesses that are working to create safe places for young people to enjoy a range of activities or to get information and advice from reliable people or businesses. The idea of the programme is to provide world-class youth facilities throughout England. You can find information on Myplace on the Big Lottery Fund website- Opens in a new window.

Promoting healthy living

By promoting healthy living amongst your employees you can have a direct impact on the health of their children. You can support your staff by creating healthy workplaces, including having healthy food options – eg in vending machines or staff canteens – and facilities for cyclists.

You can find more information on promoting healthy living in our guide on how to improve employee health and well-being.

Change4Life is a government initiative that encourages people to eat more healthily, exercise more and pass these influences on to their children. By registering your business with Change4Life, you can get access to health advice and information on how to encourage your workers to get involved.

You can register for Change4Life on the Change4Life website- Opens in a new window.

Supporting Parents

If you have employees with children under the age of six – and your employees have worked for you for at least six months – they may request flexible working. Publicising any parental leave policies you have will help your employees understand their parental leave entitlements and could reflect favourably on you and your business. It can also encourage parents to involve themselves in the scheme, especially fathers, – who often do not take up, or are not aware of, their entitlement.

You could also consider providing affordable and accessible childcare to enable parents to enter and stay in work. Quality early learning can also have a positive impact on a child’s early development and later learning.

You can help support your employees with children by:

• advising staff about local children’s centres or other available early years provision
• supporting the Employer Supported Childcare scheme – these are tax and National Insurance contribution exemption vouchers, which can be used to pay for childcare
• creating a childcare centre at work – businesses can receive government funding to help with construction or refurbishment of any workplace nursery

Mentoring pupils to raise aspirations

There are a number of ways you can get involved in the mentoring process for young people. Mentoring helps to raise young people’s aspirations and interest them in specific sectors of business.

For more information on mentoring, see the page in this guide on improving the employability and enterprise of young people.

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