Types of business pledges | Medway Council

Education

In Medway, we aim to put education and business together to prepare students and others groups to go on further or higher education or skilled employment and inspire them to make a positive contribution to society.

Although qualifications are very important, they’re not the only option. We recognise that employability, or work-readiness, is wanted by businesses.

Building positive relationships between businesses and education helps people to develop their skills to get ahead in the workplace.

Support a CV writing workshop

A CV is the first thing an employer sees. You can help students realise just how important that first impression is.

Your knowledge and expertise can support students to make sure their CV is the best it can be to stand out from the crowd.

These sessions could be 1 to 2 hours long and involve small groups of students at a time for an interactive session.

Assess students in mock interviews

Interview skills are hard to teach students who have not experienced interviews before.

You could support students by giving them a one-to-one interview and help them to highlight their strengths and weaknesses for future interviews.

The sessions will be within a school or college. They could last from half a school day to all day and involve working one-to-one with students.

Host a student or group visit at your business

The world of work can help to bring a school or college curriculum to life for students.

Work visits for schools or colleges can help show students why they are learning the skills focused on in their classes.

Your invitation can inspire and motivate students after they’ve seen for themselves how their learning is used in real work life.

Schools or colleges will be flexible around your working day and will normally arrange travel for the students.

Engage and exhibit at our career fairs

Career fairs are the perfect way to put education and business together.

They allow you to show off your company or sector to many engaged students of all ages. As well as talk about what roles and apprenticeships are available in your industry.

It also gives you the opportunity to target your future workforce.

These events vary in time and length and are very interactive with students, teachers, parents or carers, and other stand holders.

Offer a job shadowing opportunity to a student

These opportunities give students a valuable insight into a certain work environment and what is involved in that daily routine.

They help young people to explore specific different careers and try them out so they can make informed decisions about their future careers.

These opportunities would be:

flexible around your time and resources
arranged with full support of the school or college and the students’ parents or carers.

Become a Careers and Enterprise Company Enterprise Adviser

As an Enterprise Adviser you'll work directly with a school or college's senior leadership team to develop their careers programme.

You can combine your passion for raising the aspirations of young people with your strategic skills to help put opportunities with local employers at the heart of a young person's education.

Enterprise Advisers are senior-level professionals. They come from different industry sectors and professional backgrounds and can be:

be that employed
self-employed
recently retired.

They are also dedicated to making a lasting impact on the future outcomes of young people.

Reasons to sign up as an Enterprise Adviser

By signing up you can:

support your local school or college to offer world class guidance to their students
complete strategic planning in a new context, developing your skills in communication and strategy development
build strong working relationships with your local school or college and offer insight into your organisation and industry
better understand the education sector and the challenges faced.

As an Enterprise Adviser, you can provide an employer's perspective.

You can support the school or college’s senior leadership team to focus efforts and have the most impact on their students learning of the world of work.

The Kent and Medway Careers Hub also provides networking opportunities with other local businesses and employers in the network.

The hub is fully supported by an Enterprise Coordinator in Medway who works closely with the Enterprise Advisers and the schools or college.

Mentor a student

Students often listen to a business person more than they do their parents or carers, and teachers or tutors.

Being a mentor for a young person and supporting them through their education and development helps them make decisions about their own path.

You can also gain skills yourself including:

listening
leadership
facilitation.

Mentoring would take place in the school or college about three or four times each academic year. Or you can choose to also offer email support.

Recruit a newly qualified student

We're lucky enough to have lots of students studying in Medway ready to meet you.

They have the qualifications which can add value to your business, and are actively looking for the local opportunities you may have.

We can support you by sharing your employment opportunities with students through the education institutions to help with your recruitment process.

Offer supported internships

You can make a difference to a young people with a statement of Special Educational Need or an Education, Health and Care plan.

We're looking for opportunities for students to enjoy a structured education plan primarily based within businesses.

The plan aims for students to achieve sustainable paid employment by teaching them the skills they need for the world of work during the internship.

Supported internships are unpaid so do not cost your business and the students are fully supported by job coaches.

Be a judge in a skills competition

If you see yourself as the next Simon Cowell, you can judge skills competitions.

Competitions are a great way for teaching skills to young people. They can promote the development of skills such as:

communication
negotiation
problem solving
team working.

Students are always proud to show off their work. Having someone from the industry visiting them to judge their work can also inspire them and increase their motivation to do well.

Run a guest lecture about your business or job

A school curriculum or college course gives students the knowledge and you can help to bring it to life.

If you have an hour or two to spare, you can go back to school or college and tell students about your:

work
career
journey so far.

You can highlight the value of the transferable skills you have gained through your career journey and help to raise their aspirations.

Use your business as a venue for the next event, conference or meeting

This is a perfect chance to show off your business and what you do.

Offering a venue for events can give you the opportunity to arrange a tour around your business and share what you do.

It's a great chance to network and make new connections in businesses and education.

Set a business challenge for students to solve

If you have a good idea for a business challenge around your sector you can give students a chance to solve it.

Businesses can link back to a subject at school or college so working with the Head of Departments you can set something up.

You can even offer a little prize to promote your business as a little bonus should you wish to.

It raises your profile in the local community and the schools or college will promote your support on their social media platforms.

Support a professional development visit

Teachers and tutors would enjoy visiting your business to identify where curriculum can be enriched with real life stories.

These can show students how their learning and knowledge from school transfers into the world of work.

Take part in a speed networking event

Students learn so much from businesses, even in a short amount of time.

These events involve a rotation of students sitting with you for a few minutes each so they can ask you what you do, chat about your career and talk about their plans.

The students learn the art of networking and to communicate confidently with different people in a room.

You can also highlight the differing roles within your business and share your own story.

Offer a T Level industry placement

T Levels are a new qualification for students aged 16 to 19 in England who have finished their GCSEs.

Each T Level is equivalent to 3 A Levels and helps young people develop the knowledge, attitude, and practical skills to thrive in the workplace.

T Level students spend 80% of the course in the classroom, learning the essential skills that your employees need. The other 20% is a meaningful industry placement, where they put these skills into action.

Support the Young Enterprise Company Programme

The Young Enterprise Company Programme allows students aged 15 to 19 years to form their own company and take on director roles. They then design, market and sell their own product or service.

Young Enterprise aim to assign all student companies a business adviser. This is a volunteer prepared to guide the students through:

running their business
encouraging participation
sharing their own experience of the world of work.

Share your knowledge and expertise to support a course

You could use your knowledge and expertise to support a course in Medway.

This can help bring the course to life for learners.

We have a variety of education courses for all ages and we can help you match your skill to the right course.

Employees

Free courses and additional training for employees

Free training, financial support, and career advice available to your workforce.

Some of the benefits of your employees taking a free course or training outside of employment include:

upskilling your existing employees
progressing your current employees into higher skilled roles
filling vacancies or skill shortages within your business
gaining a workforce with the right knowledge, skills, and behaviours for your company to succeed.

Support for veterans

Armed Forces Covenant

The Armed Forces Covenant ensures those that serve or have served in the armed forces including their families are treated fairly.

We understand that those who serve or who have served in the armed forces including their families should be treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy and society they serve.

We have signed our own covenant with the armed sources showing our commitment to supporting serving, reservist and ex armed forces and their dependants.

Please let us know if you would like to support veterans in Medway.

Recruitment support

Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP)

Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) help prepare those receiving unemployment benefits to apply for jobs in a different area of work.

Placements run for up to 6 weeks and are designed to help you recruit a workforce with the right skills to sustain and grow your business.

They're tailored to meet your recruitment needs, including:

pre-employment training
a work experience placement
your guarantee of a job interview for participants.

Recruit and develop an apprentice

You can give someone the opportunity to learn on the job by offering an apprenticeship.

These are becoming more popular with young people hoping to earn while they learn the necessary skills from you.

You would be supported by a training provider to deliver the qualification.

Students will be recruited to start at different levels of apprenticeships based on their education achievements and can be developed further.

Help us to design and run programmes to meet your needs

There is nothing more effective than us offering programmes designed with your support.

Working together, we can make sure the programmes offered teach students what your businesses need including:

skills
knowledge
experience.

Offer traineeships

A traineeship is a work-based skills development programme that includes a work placement.

The full programme can last from 6 weeks up to a year, though most traineeships last between 6 weeks and 12 weeks.

Your business needs to be able to offer a safe, meaningful and high-quality work experience placement of at least 70 hours to 240 hours.

You'll work with a training provider to design what is included in the programme.

Trainees can gain English, maths, digital and work-related qualifications which can lead them on to:

an apprenticeship
work
further education.

Skills Bootcamp

Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks for adults aged 19 or over.

They give people the opportunity to:

build up valuable sector-specific skills based on local employer demand
provide a direct path to a job on completion.

Skills Bootcamps are mainly aimed at delivering flexible training at levels 3 to 5 (medium to higher level technical skills), and level 2 in some sectors.

They are co-designed or shaped with employers to respond to their skills shortages.

Supported employment

The Specialist Employment Service provides a range of services to support people to gain and maintain paid employment.

To find out more information visit The Education People website.

Community support

Become a Medway Change Maker

Medway Change Makers connects people with short term volunteering opportunities mainly in the arts and cultural sector, with no minimum hours requirements.

There's funding available to make volunteering more accessible to volunteers who face barriers getting involved. This includes barriers such as disability access or language barriers.

Help to deliver Medway's Skills and Employment Plan

Our Skills and Employability Plan is for all.

The plan supports anyone who is considering options for:

primary education
secondary education
further education
higher education.

It supports people who are not in employment, education or training, including those who are a looking to train at work, return to the workforce or begin an apprenticeship.

Offer a venue for an event, conference or meeting

If you would like to offer a venue, you can use our sign up form to pledge a venue.