Guy Bates, Divisional Director for Estates, XMA
Mary Reeves, Cook in Charge, South Holland Post-16 Centre
Gareth Billings, International Procurement Administrator, Experian
Steve Woolley, Managing Director, Smedleys Salads
Ray Isaacs, IT Diploma Consortium Lead, South Holland
Chris Perry, Head of ICT, Newhall Green High School
Anisa Ali, Entrepreneur / Sole Trader
Nigel Akers, IT Diploma Co-ordinator, Nottingham City
Narrator: Consortia delivering the Diploma in IT from Manchester, Nottingham and South Holland have found that there are a range of reasons why employers are willing to engage.
Guy Bates, Divisional Director for Estates, XMA: If we have any opportunity to influence the quality of people that our business has the opportunity to employ it will really help our business in the future.
Mary Reeves, Cook in Charge, South Holland Post-16 Centre: Well it just seemed like a really good way of helping students, and also with it being their own café here anyway, it’s nice for them to get involved with the college.
Gareth Billings, International Procurement Administrator, Experian: A lot of the people that work for Experian have got kids in local schools so obviously it has a direct effect. It works both ways. It helps the people that work at Experian and it helps the local community as well.
Steve Woolley, Managing Director, Smedleys Salads: I guess from the social responsibility point of view it’s something we feel dear about, helping young people in the area. But also, attracting young people into the industry, particularly into IT, is something I think can help the industry in the long term.
Narrator: While most consortia are limited to using local employers, using a range of organisations can enrich the experience and help develop learners' confidence too.
Ray Isaacs, IT Diploma Consortium Lead, South Holland: The very nature of the rural employers will make it different and it will make the whole Diploma different because the employers in towns tend to be more industrial. All we are in Spalding, the main industries, are food industries.
The employers I’ve got are ones who would never be expected to fit in with the IT Diploma. It’s the potential of technology, skills for innovation. If there’s no technology out there in a company and we put some in then we have fulfilled what the Diploma is asking, and given the youngsters a big buzz and a lot of confidence.
Narrator: As well as different types of employers, different sized organisations, from multinationals to sole traders can offer support to learners in different ways.
Chris Perry, Head of ICT, Newhall Green High School: One of the employers we’ve worked with really successfully was PC World. We went on a visit with our students. Two of their staff did a fantastic presentation to the students. I think the size of PC World means that they are a company that were keen to get involved, and they were very, very helpful. I think any size business is useful to the Diploma and to work with the students, if they’ve got people who are enthusiastic and keen to help and offer their time really.
Ray Isaacs: There are some of our learners who are not very confident in the wide world, and if I put them out to a large company they would not enjoy the experience, but if I can put them to a small company they will get something out of it and then, as they get more confident, can move out.
Mary Reeves: We are going to ask the students to set up spreadsheets for doing my whole trading summary. It’s a lot quicker to be able to just key in some numbers into the computer than it is to hand write everything. I’m no good at computers. When I went to school there wasn’t computers and it’s great to have some help to set these things up.
Anisa Ali, Entrepreneur/Sole Trader: This college, I owe them a lot. I started off as a special needs student and with the help of this college I am now a first class honours graduate from the Nottingham Trent University. I thought this is the chance for me to learn something and then obviously share something with them, and at the same time saying thank you to Djanogly.
Nigel Akers, IT Diploma Co-ordinator, Nottingham City: I think it’s important to work from the small company that the youngsters can actually relate to, up to the big multinationals. So that’s why we start with our Business Challenge 1, with a sole trader. It introduces them to business, that people are actually making money out of that, they’re on their own and they do it. And then we just increase the size of the company that we use in our business challenges so that they begin to get an idea of the range of businesses and size of operations there are out there in the real world. Something like 64% of all employment is as a sole trader in the UK, so it’s important they see that side of it, but also important that they end up working and getting a feel for how companies like Toshiba operate with thousands of employees across the world.
Shop floor: They also do one with 36 pots in as well, and that’s quite a bit of KFC I think.
Ray Isaacs: We’ve got food companies, we’ve got travel agents, we’ve got local charities which has, in fact, now gone countywide because they’ve heard what we are doing. I would think there are very few businesses now that would not be able to support the IT Diploma.
Sadie, Level 3 Learner: I think it will be a great experience to work with other employers and get you ready for going into the real world really.
Ashley, Level 2 Learner: It’s like preparing me for the future. Giving me a taste of what it’s going to be like.
END
