Education Business Partnership - Ways employers can get involved
These are the many ways employers can get involved with student mentoring and work experience:
Work experience preparation days
Time commitment: Either a morning or 1 full day
When: Usually in the Spring/Summer before students complete their work experience.
What will you be doing: Acting as an employer expert.
There are various activities you could get involved with, each day is tailored to the needs of the school. Students may be tasked with interviewing you about your job/organisation, you may be watching them in role plays and giving feedback, talking about appropriate behaviour in the workplace or getting involved in discussions about situations that arise in the workplace. You may also conduct mock interviews and help with CV writing.
Giving a talk in a school
Time commitment: 15 minute talk, 15 mins Questions and answers session
When: At any time throughout the academic year, as schools request speakers.
What will you be doing: Speaking to a group of students on a particular topic.
Schools often ask for professionals to give talks about their job/organisation to back up a particular area of learning e.g. an engineer, legal professional, manager etc. The number of young people you speak to will vary from the whole year group, around 200, to a smaller specialist group, around 15. Young people will be well prepared for this session and will have plenty of questions to ask you.
Challenge day, delivered in school
Time commitment: Either half a school day (9 to 12)
or a full day (9 to 3)
When: At any time throughout the academic year.
What you will be doing: Setting a challenge, related to your industry, and guiding the young people through it.
This is a great team building exercise, an innovative way to do some market research and a great way to get to know your customer. You may have a development idea or a new product or service that you'd like feedback on from young people. Set them the challenge to come up with a product, test it, consider their competition etc and come up with some real suggestions for your organisation. The school and EBP would work closely with you to ensure your organisation's objectives would be matched by those of the school.
Hosting a school visit
Time commitment: A full school day, usually between 10am and 2pm.
When: At any time throughout the academic year.
What will you be doing: Showing young people around your organisation and taking part in some interactive activities.
Young people really benefit from seeing what they have been learning being put into practice in a real employment setting. We would work together to design a programme of events for the day which usually includes; a tour of your building, an activity involving your staff e.g. mock interviews, questions and answers session, giving a talk about your job/organisation.
Become an e-mentor
Time commitment: Attend one mornings training and send 2 emails a week.
When: Throughout the academic year, for a minimum of one term.
What you will be doing: Offering guidance and support to a young person interested in your job or career and what you have studied.
E-mentoring is a really simple way to make a big impact on young people. After attending a mornings training and after successful CRB clearance, you will be matched with a young person interested in your career or who is studying subjects similar to those you studied. You'll send each other an
average of 2 emails a week while the young person is going through a time of change e.g. choosing GCSE options, deciding whether to stay in school after GCSEs or whether to go to University. All e-mentoring is done through a secure system to protect the mentor and mentee.
Mentors need to complete an application form to help with the matching process. All CRB checking will be done at the compulsory training.
Enterprise activities
Time commitment: Flexible
When: Throughout the year but especially during Global Entrepreneurship week (16 to 20 November).
What you will be doing: Offering support and knowledge to budding young entrepreneurs.
Lambeth offers a range of enterprise activities to it’s young people. This ranges from basic business workshops covering ideas development, buying stock, branding etc to offering test trading grants to new businesses. We are always looking for employers to act as mentors by offering their time to
support individuals or groups of young people. You may be an expert in Tax, accounting, buying or selling; imparting this knowledge in young people can be really easy for you and incredibly useful for young people.
Offering a teacher placement
Time commitment: Flexible, from 1 day to a series of days.
When: At any time throughout the year.
What will you be doing: Providing the opportunity for a teacher to shadow professionals from your organisation.
As part of their continuing professional development, teachers may be required to develop an element of their subject knowledge through shadowing a practicing professional. They may have never seen what they are teaching being put into practice so this can really enhance their teaching as well as improve the learning experience for the student. We would work with you to develop a programme that suits both you, your organisation and the teacher involved.
Bringing the world of work into Youth Centres
Time commitment: Flexible
When: Throughout the year, especially in the school holidays.
What you will be doing: Helping young people learn about work in a fun, creative way.
Lambeth has 4 statutory Youth Clubs and many more voluntary youth clubs, offering fun activities for young people to take part in outside of school. We are introducing the world of work into youth centres through practical workshops in cooking, gardening, jewellery making and media programmes and want to develop this further. You could deliver a short practical workshop on your job, get the young people involved and thinking about it as a career option. We aim to develop these experiences into real paid apprentices, this is a perfect opportunity for your organisation to use
this as a scouting exercise to find new talent.
Working with Youth development projects
Time commitment: Flexible
When: Throughout the year.
What you will be doing: Working with young people who aspire to make a difference.
We have some truly inspirational young people in Lambeth that aspire to make a real difference in their community. Some have experienced tragedy and want to make a difference, others are really ingratiated in their community and want to encourage others to do the same. You could offer guidance and support for these young people by giving up some of your time to listen and pass on your knowledge. You could offer training - is your organisations presentation skills training always full? These young people would love to have the opportunity to visit your organisation and develop their projects further.