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How 'The Guides' have been developed

The project to create the Employers' Guide and Teachers' Guide was initiated by Business in the Community (BitC) in January 2008 in response to the need to bridge the gap between employers and schools/colleges. BitC Education played a vital role in developing the concept and in providing the initial structure and content. Seed core funding was kindly provided by STEMNET and IBM; the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) kindly supplied the initial content for the Teachers' Guides, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer providing additional funding.

Since April 2009, development of The Guides has been led by a Working Group of the Education and Employers Taskforce. It is a collaborative project supported by the members of the Taskforce Partnership Board, together with its other partners including education organisations and employers to create a truly comprehensive overview of, and coordinated approach to, education-employer engagement.

 

Taskforce Working Group and supporting partners

The Working Group and supporting partners have been key to the development of The Guides - providing research evidence, reviewing and giving feedback during their development. We would particularly like to thank:

  • ASCL - Malcolm Trobe
  • BCC -  Anne Tipple
  • Career Academies UK - David Walker
  • CBI - Richard Wainer & Matt Sheldon
  • Department for Education - John Edmunds
  • Diploma Development Partnerships - Graham Lane
  • Edge Foundation - Alex Glover
  • Every Child a Chance Trust - Jeannette Gross
  • Federation of Small Businesses- Colin Willman
  • Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP - Bea Malleson
  • HTI -  Anne Evans,
  • IBM - Mark Wakefield
  • Institute for Education Business Excellence -  Declan Swan & Charmian Roberts
  • LGA  - John Freeman
  • LSC - Ruth Bullem
  • Merrill Lynch Bank of America -  Camilla Fletcher,
  • NGA - Claire Collins
  • School Governors' One-Stop Shop - Steve Acklam and Tom Philpott
  • Specialist Schools and Academies Trust - Jenny Jupe & Sylvia King
  • STEMNET - Yvonne Baker & Terri Telford
  • Teaching Awards - Caroline Evans
  • QCA - Gary Forest
  • QinetiQ - Annette Smart,
  • UKCES - Matthew Chiles

A number of people and organisations also provided much advice, content and support to inform and shape the Guides. Thanks in particular go to the following:

  • Garth Buckle
  • Stephen Cabrera
  • Simon Day
  • Felicity Gillespie
  • Marion Thomas
  • The teachers, employers and Teach First graduates who tested the Guides and provided feedback throughout their development
  • All the schools and employers who provided a variety of case studies
  • EdComs, the leading educational consultancy, which provided the technical design on a no-profit basis.

 

Why The Guides were developed - background research

Aware of the dauntingly numerous and complex organisations involved in education, Business in the Community (BitC) undertook extensive research between 2006 and 2007 to map the existing education-employer landscape. This research sought to identify the characteristics of effective education-employer partnerships, determine what barriers currently exist and formulate solutions.

  • In partnership with NEBPN, BitC commissioned PwC to produce, on a pro-bono basis, an independent review of the quality standards of education-employer partnerships.
  • In partnership with NEPBN and Edge Foundation (who also kindly provided funding) BitC commissioned Freshminds to produce a report looking at ways to increase the quality and number of education-employer engagements. The resulting publication, 'Raising the bar and removing the barriers' also included a number of articles on the current state of play in education-employer partnership s and ideas about the creation of a brokerage portal for education-employer partnerships.
  • Complementing this input from business, BitC also commissioned EdComs to conduct a survey of what primary and secondary head teachers wanted from business.
  • The BitC Education Team produced a series of in-depth case studies for the National Council for Educational Excellence (NCEE), detailing the education programmes of leading employers, and produced an analysis of award-winning education schemes developed over the last ten years.
  • KPMG researched the education-employer links in the UK on a pro-bono basis for BitC. The research created a directory of the key initiatives and organisations concerned.

Out of all of this research came the consensus that one of the critical challenges for employers in engaging with schools is in understanding the fast-changing educational landscape and the numerous and diverse ways of engaging with schools. It was also found that it is often unclear for schools and teachers how employers can make a difference for students.

The Employers' Guide and Teachers' Guide aim to address these issues by drawing together and presenting all the information employers and schools/colleges need to know about how they can work together to benefit young people.