Ideas In Partnership have delivered Enterprise Activities to educational establishments all over Scotland.

The team have delivered workshops in Primary, Secondary and Special Needs Schools and have also delivered CPD and twilight workshops to teaching and auxiliary staff.

Each and every school is different, and Ideas In Partnership has come up with varied and creative workshops, while still incorporating the message of Enterprise.

Employer Engagement Activities

Background and Introduction:

At a time when school resources are becoming even tighter, it is even more imperative that schools build good relationships with local companies who may be willing to come to schools to give talks, help out on projects, attend careers events or offer financial or "in-kind" support.

This is usually handled locally by the school and in some cases very successful, whilst in other areas Employer Engagement is not so well co-ordinated.

We also feel that often schools deal with a certain type of business just because it is there, and not necessarily because they have a requirement for that particular business.

From research that has been carried out, schools do not necessarily show good practice when dealing with businesses, and equally businesses do not always understand the constraints that schools have to work within.

Larger businesses have more resources in-house to be able to support schools, but it is often the smaller businesses (SMEs) in Aberdeenshire that are more representative of the type of employment school leavers will take up.

Businesses like graphic design companies, PR and Marketing, IT, Logistics and the whole range of oil and gas service sector industries are just some examples.  As 98% of businesses fall within this sector, it is important that schools start to interact with them as well as the larger corporate sector.

What can Ideas In Partnership help you with?

The company, as part of a contract with Aberdeenshire Council, have questioned over 200 businesses from Aberdeen City and Shire to ask if they would be willing to do any of the following:

	Communication and Job Interview Skills
	Mock Interviews
	Pupil Discussions relating to career choices - these can be held during PSE classes
	Work Experience
	Careers Events
	Business Breakfasts/Lunches - to engage with the local business community
	Motivational Sessions
	Enterprise Activities as described before

The information on which local businesses are willing to help with any of the above is now contained on a database which individual schools can access, resulting in a better spread of businesses from across the region and less time having to be spent by schools on sourcing businesses and the resultant administration.  this information has already been used by a number of schools in the area.

Examples of Activities:

Turriff Academy - At Turriff, the school wanted to organise a mock interview session for S4/S5 pupils.  In the past this had just been done using local employers.

Through the programme, all pupils were given a workshop on interview skills and then asked to complete a questionnaire to determine what types of careers they were looking for.

Ideas In Partnership were given a list of all the pupils and their opinions, and we managed to get interviews to cover all their requirements.

Using the Employer Engagement database, we had people willing to take part from all over Aberdeenshire, not just Turriff, meaning that both the business and pupils were more motivated.

After the interview, the pupils and interviewers completed an evaluation form.  The PSE teachers fed back results individually to pupils and then Ideas In Partnership held a general workshop to relay back the results.

Banff Academy - A retailer in banff was looking to organise a promotional weekend, to be opened by two celebrities.  banff Academy pupils were asked to design and project manage the whole weekend.

The pupils involved worked over the weekend, giving them real work experience and they were even paid for their efforts!

The event was a great success and created good PR for the shop and school.

As a result of this, the employer has linked up with the school on numerous occasions and is very happy with the relationship that has been forged with the school.

Other activities - Ideas In Partnership have also worked on the following:

	Alford Academy Careers Fair
	Meldrum Academy S4/S5 Leavers Employer Engagement Event
	Meldrum Academy Language at Work Day
	Mearns Academy Business Breakfast
	Fraserburgh Academy - making the Right Subject Choices
	Banff Academy Careers Event

For all of the above, we sourced businesses to engage with the schools.

Maths Cluster Projects

Ideas In Partnership was commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council's Education, learning and Leisure Department to run the Maths Cluster Project which took place in eight primary schools and one secondary school in Aberdeenshire during May and June 2009, and was aimed at P6, P7 and S1 pupils, with an age range of 9 - 13 years old.

Aims and Objectives:

The whole purpose of the events was to show pupils that maths can be fun and that the maths they are being taught in school had practical applications in a range of different employment situations. 

All these activities fitted in well with the Curriculum for Excellence, which aims to achieve a transformation in education in Scotland by providing a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum for 3 - 18 year olds, firmly focused on the needs of the child and young person and designed to enable them to develop the following four capacities:

	Successful Learners
	Confident Individuals
	Responsible Citizens
	Effective Contributors

The project also reinforced their broader learning and achievements through a range of experiences including enhancing skills for life and skills for work.

In particular, the project had the following aims:

	To show how maths is used in everyday life and in the workplace
	To hopefully show how maths can be fun
	To enhance social and personal development
	To increase self-confidence and self-esteem
	To enable pupils to develop their core skills of working with others and problem solving - abilities they need as active, enterprising and responsible members of society
	To improve employability through the development of core skills
	To develop enterprise skills through a viable business experience.

Methodology:

each school had a two-hour session prior to their main event to "set the scene", during which pupils were told what to expect and the reasons for which their event was taking place.

each pupil was also issued with their own "Activity Pack" and began to complete the first section of it covering the importance of counting, measuring, and weighing etc.

Then, on the day of the main event each pupil was allocated to a group of no more than 15 pupils.  Within the school, there were 10 different stands at various locations.  The stands consisted of businesses or organisations with a representative who explained the function or activity of the business/organisation and gave examples of how maths were needed to work in them.  The companies/organisations who took part are listed below:

Each group of pupils were sent to a stand from where they started to tour each in turn.  After the stand representative had explained the role of the business/organisation, pupils were then asked to answer questions relating to that stand in their activity packs.  They only had a limited time-frame to do this.  Once the allotted time at that particular stand had passed, it was time to move on to the next, so that by the end of the day each group of pupils had visited all 10 stands and completed the activity pack.  All the groups were then brought together for a final summary, and the answers to all the questions explained and provided.

Hazlewood School

Ideas In Partnership ran an Enterprise Day in Hazlewood Special Needs School, using the theme of Transport. All the pupils, whose ages ranged from 5 – 18, took part.

The team organised for various types of transport to come to the school throughout the day, which the pupils went outside to see and ask their guests questions.

The pupils also made models, which were later displayed at Summerhill Education Centre. The day was very interactive and the pupils learned a lot about team building, communication, their strengths and weaknesses and most importantly they had lots of fun!

If you are interested in running an Enterprise Activity, please do not hesitate to contact Helen Maniukiewicz on 01771 644163 or click here to e-mail.