realisedevelopment.net

Just another WordPress site

Improving Employability…

by

Businesses reading the future of the labour market and feeding employment needs back in to the education system sounds like a great plan.

Except we haven’t yet found a way to do it.

We do not know enough about how the labour market will shape up with enough ‘notice’ to make any real difference to the educational process at all.

And then there is the small matter that education is not all about employability and entrepreneurship.

Few teachers join the education system as a kind of prep school for employers and have an innate suspicion of employers looking for ready made employment ‘fodder’. The vision for education is larger than slotting people into jobs. It is about the realisation of potential. In the heads of many education professionals the two goals of realising potential and developing employability make uncomfortable bed-fellows.

I have been involved in Vocational Education and Training, both on the policy side and in practice for over 25 years. Not one of those 25 years has gone by without similar diagnoses and prescriptions:

  • A stronger role for employers,
  • more business in the curriculum,
  • better specifications of what it means to be employable (whole careers can be developed in this field),
  • reformations of the careers service,
  • more employability projects, internships, mentoring, and so on.

And while our engagement as ‘business people’ may help us to feel like we are doing our part, and there are plenty of awards to be won, in the grand schemes of things it makes very little difference. 20+ years of ‘improving school standards’ and still employers complaining about the product…..

If we are serious about improving the life chances of our young people we need to radically revise the nature of the education process and system, not bolt on another committee.

We need to encourage young people to know themselves, their passions and and their potential (almost impossible when you are asked to turn interest on and off at the call of the school bell).  Instead of trying to take slivers of the real world into school we should do much, much more to get children into adult company in real work and non-work settings, public, private and third sector. It is not just business that needs to be more involved with schools, but adult society in general.  Personally I think that post 14 most young people should spend more time being educated outside the school than in it.

There is an argument to say that the only thing children really learn at school is how to relate to an authoritarian system, either through compliance or defiance.

If we are serious about the potential of all our young people then tinkering with the curriculum and the occasional day of smoothie making is just not going to cut it. We need to re-think how we prepare young people to play full lives in adult society. And as a nation that is a debate that we not seem to have the political will to hold.

Towards A Community Advertising Network for Leeds

by

So, here is the idea, developed by Paul Burr of The CAN-Do Project (CAN= Community Advertising Network).

We set up a Leeds community group to run an advertising business.  We put up roadside hoardings on land on some of the prime thoroughfares in our city, having got the permission of land owners and applied for planning permission where necessary.

Advertising on the sites gets sold to:

  • National and multi-national corporations at premium rates
  • Local small businesses at heavily discounted rates – with further discounts available for those that agree to take on a trainee, provide a placement or take on a mentoring role for example (wouldn’t it be nice to see local small businesses advertising on prime sites as well as the big corporates and multi-nationals?)
  • Local social enterprises, charities and other good causes who help to manage the network get to a limited number of adverts free of charge.

Surplus revenues get re-invested back into the local community, for example to fund a micro-enterprise startup or loan fund, or to fund community and youth workers perhaps.

A great way of helping to use assets in the community (roadside land, and passing traffic) to realise community development through:

  • direct income generation
  • affordable advertising for local businesses
  • creating jobs in administration of the scheme, erecting hoardings and posting up adverts
  • building community capacity by encouraging mentoring and other social goods.

Paul’s research suggests that it might be possible to generate several hundreds of thousands of pounds in advertising for local businesses and third sector organisations as well as substantial cash revenues each year.

Who could possibly object?

It seems that there are several major private sector providers of roadside hoardings in Leeds, who pay rent to the council for access to prime sites.  Paul’s proposal could see money retained in the community where the hoardings are placed rather than going to the council, and could see a new competitor to the private sector suppliers.

I am sure too that many will protest against the positioning of further advertising hoardings across the city.  These things are not always easy on the eye – but this would have to be off-set against the benefits.

Next Steps

A group of us, including LS14 Trust and SLATE  have already met to explore the potential of such a Community Advertising Network in Leeds and see enough potential to explore the idea further.  If you would like to join us to discuss the idea further. A meeting will be held between 12 and 2pm on March 5th at a venue to be confirmed.

We would especially love to hear from you if you would like to:

  • get involved in managing the project,
  • become a beneficiary of it
  • provide us with legal advice and guidance
  • offer us, or suggest, some land that we can use for these hoardings.

Whether you love the idea or hate it, please do let us know….

What People Say About Progress School…

by

Because I choose to let it, Progress School forces me to focus on what I need to do to develop my future plans. Attending the sessions makes me focus at least once a month [if I’m lucky enough to escape work to attend] and that focus is nudging me into taking actions that I might ordinarily push to one side ‘until later’.

The only negative side manifests itself in my frustration when my paid job is too demanding to allow that precious time for me to attend. Precious is what Progress School is to me at the present time. Now I need to find ways to ensure my escape in good time every 2nd Thurs of the month.

 

“I’ve always known personal development was important, but rarely actually made any time for it. Progress School changes that. It means that at least once a month I’m forced to think about my own development, and better still it gives me the tools, support and motivation for doing so.”

“Joining a group which is focused on self development has focused me on what I need to do. Knowing that I will be “reporting in” once a month has helped me to find the time to put in the effort to do something in readiness for the next session.”

 

Thank you very much for inviting me to Hull Progress School which I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought that Mike’s presentation /facilitation was excellent. Actually I was able to recall the model verbatim during a conversation over the weekend which either

a) had a lasting and meaningful impact, or

b) means that I am opening my mind as a consultant to new ideas, or

c) makes me sad and I should get out more !

Book On Progress School Here