Engineering

Jonathan Britton, Practitioner, Director of Post-16 Education, Archbishop Holgate's School
Shan Jones, Staffordshire Partnership (Education Business Partnership)
Ruth Kay, Practitioner, Head of Engineering Diploma, Mid Kent College
Eamonn Durkan, Practitioner, Head of Technology, Rivington and Blackrod High School
Lisa Rowntree, Head of Engineering, York College

Narrator: Finding employers who are willing to be involved in the delivery of the Engineering Diploma can at first seem daunting. However, organisations such as Education Business Partnerships, who are tasked with linking businesses to education, can be a good starting point.

Jonathan Britton: About 6 months before we launched I approached the Education Business Partnership to talk with them about businesses that were already engaged in education. I worked very closely with the city council who have a huge resource and many different links with businesses and also can also provide you with internships and mentors. But the key thing is getting out of school and there is a time commitment there, but I found that by making appointments, getting out into business, meeting with people... That push which lasted about 6 months, resulted in 30 businesses coming in on one day to meet, obviously the students and the teachers, and to meet the senior leadership team of the school.

Level 3 learner: We had a business meeting with 30 different companies and their representatives about two weeks ago. And I did a speech about what we’re doing, and then McKechnie Plastics approached me about doing work experience with them.

Narrator: In Stoke they’ve been working with their local Chamber of Commerce to source possible employers.

Shan Jones: The Chamber have allowed us to take over some of their networking events. So rather than us keeping on making new approaches to employers, we’re using the existing employer networks and that is always the most effective way of working with employers. And because they’re held on employers’ premises, quite high profile premises, then people want to go. And also because they’re part of the Chamber cycle of meetings, they are already in the diary and they’re ready to go, so you're maximising employers’ time.

Narrator: But not all consortia have the luxury of engineering industry on their doorstep. Medway, a small consortium, chose to work directly with a buddy, an industry figure who can help provide the links they need.

Ruth Kay: The buddy system was set up by the MEBP so that you would be associated with someone in the same industry as you obviously are. You can go to the person that’s your buddy; they will assist you with industrial visits at their engineering company.

Narrator: Some consortia have found that looking closer to home can also lead to potential employer engagement.

Eamonn Durkan: We’ve found that a lot of our contacts, our early contacts have been through the parents, and the parents have just been incredibly supportive of the work-based learning. We are a large school. We’ve got over 2,500 students and that is a potential 2,500 work placements for our students.

Lisa Rowntree: A couple of our students, one in particular, his father actually works in the maintenance team at York Hospital, for the National Health. And we got a couple of placements for students there, working with the engineering maintenance team.

Ruth Kay: I’ve actually spoken to some of my students that are part timers, obviously on a different course, and asked them whether they would approach their employer and see whether it’s possible that we could do an industrial visit.

Narrator: And you never know when opportunities can present themselves, like one teacher’s shopping trip to a car care company.

Eamonn Durkan: I went in to buy some spray, got talking to the Managing Director, asked the Managing Director if he would like to be involved in some of the learning activities that we were involved in, and from there we set some briefs that the company would like us to look at. And from there the relationship was developed with the school.

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