Stronger links will be built between schools and employers in the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership area, to help young people better realise their career potential.
D2N2 – which promotes economic growth and jobs creation across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – applied for and received a maximum £150,000 funding from the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC). The Government-backed, employer-led body was set-up to unlock young people’s potential, by getting UK employers and schools to work more closely together.
The CEC funding will be matched by D2N2, providing £300,000 in total to fund the LEP’s D2N2 Employability Framework.
The Framework, launched earlier this year, will seek to address the mismatch between the employability skills being taught to young people leaving schools and post-16 training programmes in the area, and those needed by employers in their workforces.
D2N2 believes a successful economy needs businesses, and schools and colleges, to work closer together on this issue.
Funding of the Employability Framework will enable D2N2, local authorities, the National Careers Service and D2N2 area schools to create a network linking employers with secondary schools and colleges. It will motivate and support young people in making better informed choices about their future careers, whether they are aiming for further or higher education.
The D2N2 initiative – modelled on the CEC’s national programme – will see seven Enterprise Coordinators employed across the D2N2 area, who will engage with 80 schools and link them with 80 business leaders. Business people will act as volunteer Enterprise Advisors; forming an Enterprise Advisor Network of employers, large and small, to work with school leaders, to develop a plan to engage with employers.
Schools interested in becoming part of the scheme and business people wanting to become volunteer Enterprise Advisors can both find out more information, and apply, via the D2N2 LEP website at www.d2n2lep.org/skills/D2N2-Enterprise-Advisor-Network
The ambition is for every secondary school and college in the D2N2 area, and at least 20% of specialist schools, to have:
- a designated employer linked to their organisation;
- an Enterprise, Careers and Employability Strategy;
- undertaken a self-assessment, to produce an action plan in response to the Enterprise, Careers and Employability Strategy;
- access to providers delivering enterprise, careers and employability activities who have been quality assured against the D2N2 Employability Framework;
- access to a range of funding to support their school strategies.
The work of the Enterprise Coordinator and the Enterprise Advisor Network, and the projects undertaken to support schools and employers, will be overseen by the D2N2 Skills and Employment Commission, to ensure they are having an impact on helping young people with their career ambitions.
Ian Greenaway, Employability Champion for the D2N2 LEP and Board Member for the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are thrilled that the work we have been doing to develop the D2N2 Employability Framework, supported by local businesses, schools and stakeholders, can now be put into action by a business-led partnership.
“We will be bringing schools and employers together, to help young people become better informed about the world of work and inspire them to make good decisions about their future careers.”
D2N2 works extensively to promote skills and training across its area, viewing access to courses – which provide the higher skills employers need in their workforces – as essential to boosting economic growth and jobs creation.
Other initiatives it has recently launched to create closer links between employers, and skills and training providers, include the Provider Charter (launched April 2015); which has the backing of those providing courses and programmes for thousands of students across the D2N2 area.
Further information about the Careers and Enterprise Company can be found at web link www.careersandenterprise.co.uk
For further details about the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership’s work to promote skills and training see website www.d2n2lep.org/skills
Partners in the D2N2 Enterprise Advisor Network are the D2N2 LEP, Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council, the National Careers Service, the Evolve Trust and Placing Futures.
For further information about this news release contact D2N2 LEP Communications Manager Sean Kirby on 0115 9578749 or email: sean.kirby@d2n2lep.org
