THE NEWSLETTER OF WALSALL EDUCATION BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP ISSUE 19 • SPRING 2011

Walsall Education Business Partnership works to encourage

improved links betweeneducation and business.

Through a range of programmesWalsall EBP provides insights andunderstanding for industry andschool staff, works to raise the

motivation and achievement levelsof students and helps to preparethem for life after school and for

the world of work.

www.walsallebp.co.uk

Walsall EBP are extremely grateful to Midcounties Co-operative for their sponsorship

of the 2011 Annual Employer Conference and this edition of Partnership News.

Pupils at Leighswood School working with anemployer as part of the ‘Me, My Future, MyJob!’ pilot programme

Working with Walsall Children’s Services – Serco and a small group of interested primaryschools (Leighswood, Cooper Jordan, St Mary of the Angels & Whetstone Fields) Walsall EBPhas recently developed and delivered a three session, pilot programme aimed at improvingthe employability skills of primary age youngsters. Working with a group of thirty year 6pupils this activity helps to increase the pupils’ knowledge of the world of work through:

✦ identifying individual personal skills and attributes✦ developing an awareness of jobs that they are interested in for the future✦ taking part in a mini-enterprise challenge to develop/ test their communication and team working skills✦ focussing on future aspirations and interview skills

Local employers supported each of the activities and in the final session were interviewed bythe pupils so that they could learn more about employer expectations.

The feedback from the pupils, schools and employers involved in the pilot wasoverwhelmingly positive and it is now intended to make ‘Me, My Future, My Job!’available to many more groups of year 6 pupils across the borough.

2011

C O N F E R E N C E

MIDCOUNTIES CO-OPERATIVE SPONSORSHIP...

Tower building in progress at theLeon Jessel Technology Challenge

Pupils working with employer support

Year 8 Enterprise ChallengeWalsall EBP are increasingly working with all age groups and recently, for the first time,organised an Enterprise Challenge open to teams of year 8 students from any of the Walsall secondary schools. The response was excellent and the actual Challenge involvedthe teams in:

• developing their enterprise and creativity skills• deciding on a charity to support• designing a suitable fund-raising activity• making a presentation about their ideas to a judging panel

The team from Willenhall School Sports College won the event.

A Walsall EBP business supporter working with year 8 students at the recent Enterprise Challenge

2 PARTNERSHIPNEWS

Walsall Primary Enterprise ChallengeThe second annual Walsall EBP Primary Enterprise Challenge competitiontook place in 2010 and gave the teams from the 39 schools takingpart, the opportunity to develop some important skills including:

• team working • problem solving • communication • presentation • self-management • effective participation • creative thinking

Following a series of heats across the borough an exciting final, held atBanks’s Stadium, was won by the team from New Invention JuniorSchool (pictured below).

We are often asked how our enterprise events work and we thoughtthat it would be interesting to show, through photographs, the WalsallEBP Primary Enterprise 2010 Challenge final from start to finish.

The following photographsshow the way that the pupils,with employer support, weretaken through a series of stagesfrom being told the Challenge right throughto the announcementof the eventual winners.

Preparation and briefing about the Challenge subject

>

Discussing the options with employer support

>

Working, with the help of employer supporters, on the Challenge

>

Heats are currently taking place to identifythe teams who will be taking part in thisyear’s final at the Banks’s Stadium.

Convincing the Judges

>

The winning team✦

1

2

3

4

‘Outstanding Example of Excellence’

To date 35 volunteers have been recruited as Walsall EBP Champions and their expertise, help and support have proved invaluable at many of the enterprise andemployability activities and events organised for local schools by Walsall EBP. The sectors currently covered are:

• Business• Construction• Engineering• Enterprise• Environment• Fair Trade• Health & Social Care• IT• Modern Languages• Retail

When they are recruited each ‘Champion’ agrees to:

• undergo an Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) background check• support a minimum of five education business link activities each year• attend a short induction training session and subsequent follow-up sessions organised by Walsall EBP

A group of the Walsall EBP Champions photographedat a recent follow-up training / networking session

Walsall EBP Fairtrade Champion Louise Brown, fromMidcounties Co-op working with primary pupils at

a recent Fairtrade Enterprise Challenge event

If you are interested in becoming a Walsall EBP Champion then please contact Lorenzo Cosco here

at Walsall EBP

It is pleasing to report that local company A. F Blakemore & Son Ltd(winners of the Walsall EBP 2010 Employer Award) were recognisedas the ‘Outstanding Example of Excellence’ at the recent WalsallCivic Corporate Social Responsibility Awards. Staff from Blakemore’ssupport a wide range of Walsall EBP activities as a key part of thecompany’s Corporate Social Responsibility input to the Walsall community.

(L to R) Paul Cowley, Corporate Affairs Manager, A.F. Blakemore, Stephen Cloves,Group HR Director, A.F. Blakemore pictured receiving the Award from the Mayorof Walsall Cllr Gary Clarke

3PARTNERSHIPNEWS

Walsall EBP

4 PARTNERSHIPNEWS

Walsall EBP recently linked up again with the WalsallChamber Trustees to organise a Technology Challenge,for teams of year 9 students, in memory of formerChamber member and local businessman Leon Jessel.

The event was held at the Green Lane Campus of WalsallCollege and the year 9 students were given the thoughtprovoking challenge of creating a tower, of a specificheight, capable of supporting a 1kg weight. The Challenge was conducted and judged using ‘Lean Manufacturing’ principles with each building block having a unit cost. The winning team from St Francis ofAssisi Catholic Technology College convinced the judgesthat they had the tower with:

• the best design • the strongest structure• the lowest cost (least number of building blocks used)

Leon JesselMemorial Technology Challenge

The team from St Francis of Assisi College pictured with David Brown, President, Black Country Chamber -

Walsall Division and their winning tower

Young Chef of the Year For a number of years Walsall EBP has supported the Rotary Club of Walsallwith its annual Young Chef of the Year competition. The youngsters whoenter are challenged to prepare a main course for two people, with ahealthy options’ theme, within a stipulated budget. Heats are held in individual schools to select the students to go forward to the Walsall finals.

Working hard in the kitchens during the Young Chef final

The Walsall Rotary Young Chef 2011 winners pictured with the Judges and Walsall EBP staff

At this year’s final the judges faced a really difficult taskin separating the finalists in the two age categories (Junior – 11 -14 years and Senior – 15 – 16 years) because each year the standard of culinary skills displayed just keeps getting better and better.

The eventual winners:

Opportunities in ConstructionA group of 160 students (year 11/12) from Joseph Leckie Community Technology College recently took part in a seminarwhich was designed to raise their awareness of the career opportunities within the construction industry.

Input was provided by representatives from:

• Walsall Housing Group• Skanska Walsall JV• CSkills

The presentations focussed on:

• trade and management roles• women working in construction • apprenticeships for young people• work experience • routes leading to higher qualifications

Tim Rymond, Manager, WHG Construction Skills Centre emphasisedthat “Young people need to know their way through all the application processes so that they can take advantage of the opportunities available in our industry”

The opportunity was taken at the event, by Steve Davis, EnvironmentalManager, Skanska Walsall JV to congratulate a group of sixth formstudents, at the College, on their solution to a ‘design & make’ challenge.

This had resulted in an Environmental Trophy made out of re-cycled materials from the Skanska site. The trophy is now presented, bySkanska each month, to a contractor for environmental initiatives.

Nick Radburn, Head of Design and Technology at Joseph Leckie mentioned the benefits of their partnership with Skanska and WalsallEducation Business Partnership which had:

• facilitated student visits to the hospital site• enabled a group of 14 year olds to make bird boxes from recycled timber which have now been presented to the RSPB• led the Technology department to adopt the Skanska model of “Your workplace - own it!”

Pictured with sixth form

students (L to R)Steve Davis,

Skanska Walsall JV,Tim Rymond,

WHG ConstructionSkills Centre,

Lorraine Gregory,CSkills and

Nick Radburn,Joseph Leckie

Community Technology College

5PARTNERSHIPNEWS

Practice Interviews

GX

Yt

J

6 PARTNERSHIPNEWS

A local employer delivering a practice interview for a year 11 Walsall student

Since 1994 the Walsall EBP team have arranged well over 16,000 practice interviews for year 11 Walsall students, with local employers, and these continue to form an important part of the ‘preparation for work’ activities.The youngsters involved in the programme:

• are asked to complete a generic application form• receive details of their interview• are expected to arrive for the interview appropriately dressed and on time• go through a 20 minute interview and receive verbal feedback about their performance on the day• receive a written feedback report back in school

Feedback from both students and employers about the practice interview programme continues to be extremely positive. Walsall EBP are now also able toaccredit the preparation and performance of young people in their practice interview through the Edexcel Workskills suite of qualifications. If you are interested in getting involved with practice interviews then please contactPauline Millward here at Walsall EBP.

The Holiday Bursary teachers pictured receiving their certificates at the feedback session.

7PARTNERSHIPNEWS

Financial support from the Confederation of British Metalformingand the Royal Academy of Engineers meant that Walsall EBPwere once again able to organise a holiday bursary placementactivity for 6 design and technology teachers from local schools.The aim of the placements was to give the teachers the opportunity to:

• visit a number of manufacturing / engineering companies• see different aspects of the design and manufacturing process• gain information to enhance their teaching of technology• make useful contacts within relevant companies

At the “twilight” preparation session the teachers identified thekey learning areas that they would like to see included in the programme and these were:

a) Health & Safety procedures / considerationsb) Recycling / waste managementc) CAD design / production planningd) ‘Lean’ manufacturing

Walsall EBP then organised a programme, taking these requirementsinto account, and arranged visits to:

Hadley Group – where the group viewed 3D CAD design and themanufacturing processes involved with cold, rolled-steel sections

Regent Engineering – who were able to provide access to themanufacture and supply of pressed components including 3D CADdesign

Sandvik Coromant UK – who demonstrated their range of tungsten carbide cutting tools for the automotive, aerospace andmedical industries

TTI Group – this company showed the teachers surface engineeringand heat treatments, including Plasma Nitriding, for automotivecustomers such as Harley Davidson and Land Rover

At the feedback session, a few weeks after the placements, theteachers shared with the rest of the group and some employerrepresentatives the range of teaching materials / ideas that theyhad developed as a direct result of their visits and these included:

• photographs• drawings• powerpoint presentations incorporating video footage • other teaching resources.

The programme was an undoubted success and funding isnow in place to enable a similar programme to be run duringa school holiday in 2011.

Holiday Bursary Placements

Walsall EBP are extremely grateful to Midcounties Co-operative for their sponsorship

of the 2011 Annual Employer Conference and this edition of Partnership News.

Walsall Education Business Partnership: 4th Floor, Townend House, Townend Square, Walsall WS1 1NS

Tel: 01922 424200 Fax: 01922 424243 E-mail: info@walsallebp.co.uk Web: www.walsallebp.co.uk

Supported by Walsall Council, Walsall Partnership and Walsall Housing Group

Now in its fifteenth year this annual event once again attracted delegates from a widerange of organisations who wanted to:

• be updated about the work and progress of Walsall EBP;• learn more about recent education changes in more detail;• meet some of the young people, employers and teachers who had been involved with Walsall EBP activities in the last twelve months;• share in the celebration of successes.

The following Walsall EBP Awards, sponsored by Accord Housing, were presented atthe Conference:

Rising Star Awards: introduced in 2007 to recognise those individuals /organisations whohave significantly increased their contribution to education business links in the previous year:

• Waldrons Solicitors • Accord Housing • West Midlands Police • GKN Driveline, Erdington • Leamore Primary School • Wolverhampton University – Walsall Campus

School Award: introduced in 2002 to recognise those schools who it is considered havegiven outstanding support to education business links over a sustained period:

• St Thomas More Catholic Business & Enterprise College

Voluntary & Community Award: introduced in 2005 to recognise those voluntary andcommunity organisations who support schools and students through their involvementwith Walsall EBP activities:

• Rotary Club of Walsall

Employer Awards: introduced in 1999 to recognise those organisations that are considered to have given outstanding support to education business link activities over asustained period. Three categories of award are presented, based on the number of employees in the company and the level of support given to Walsall EBP:

a) less than 49 employees – dlh marketing b) 50 – 199 employees – Performance Through People, Walsall c) Over 200 employees – Walsall Housing Group

Walsall EBP 2011 Awards sponsored by Accord Housing

C O N F E R E N C E

2011

Performance Through People

This award is presented to acknowledge the

outstanding support given to Walsall EBP

in its work developing the employability skills

of young people.

D

Rotary Club of Walsall

This award is presented to acknowledge the

outstanding support given to Walsall EBP

in its work developing the employability skills

of young people.

PCSO Bernie CrazeWest Midlands Police

This award is presented to acknowledge the

recent support given to Walsall EBP

in its work developing the

employability skills of young people.

D

St Thomas More Catholic Business & Enterprise College

This award is presented to acknowledge the

outstanding support given to Walsall EBP

in its work developing the employability skills

of young people.

Mat

eria

l man

ufac

ture

d us

ing

pulp

from

rene

wab

le ti

mbe

r pro

duce

d on

a fu

lly s

usta

inab

le b

asis

. Virg

in p

ulp

blea

ched

by

an E

lem

enta

l Chl

orin

e Fr

ee p

roce

ss (E

CF)

. Pap

er s

uita

ble

for r

ecyc

ling.