Reviewing and evaluating
Having worked together it is important that both parties regularly review how they are working together and the support offered to young people. The type of support being offered by employers may need to change over time.
It is important that schools, colleges and employers reflect together in an open and honest way at regular intervals during the course of the year to monitor what's working and what's not.
At the end of the period of initial engagement they should undertake a joint review of the impact of activities. This might include:
- feedback from the young people themselves on the value of the activity/engagement
- feedback from the people involved in the partnership on both sides with regard to the effectiveness of working together
- any hard data that can be used to demonstrate the impact of employer involvement on student attainment, motivation and behaviour.
Even when partnerships are well established and activities have been taking place for a number of years, it is important that both the school/college and employer continue to review that their ways of working together is meeting the development needs of young people. In particular, they should continue to look at other examples of employer engagement to see what they might learn from them.