Key information
Decision type: Assistant Director
Reference code: ADD2158
Date signed:
Decision by: Laura Cordingley Nee Brown, Assistant Director, Team London
Executive summary
This decision form seeks approval to spend £12,000 on catering, media, branding and volunteering expenses for the Team London Advisers ‘Explore Your Horizons’ event. Expenditure will be from external income approved by MD2124.
The Enterprise Adviser Network matches professional volunteers (Enterprise Advisers) with schools to develop a whole school careers and employer engagement strategy. Subsequent to the success of the 2015 and 2016 Speed Networking events, the Enterprise Coordinator Team will host an ‘Explore Your Horizons’ event on 19 October 2017.
The event will take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground, where 250 young people will work alongside Enterprise Advisers to learn and plan for their future careers, before networking with 250 business volunteers.
Decision
That the Assistant Director of Team London (Volunteering) and Sport approves spend of £12,000 on Catering, Media, Branding and Volunteer expenses for the Team London Enterprise Advisers ‘Explore Your Horizons’ event.
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
The Enterprise Adviser Network matches professional volunteers (Enterprise Advisers) with schools to develop a whole school careers and business engagement plan. The London network is supported by 3 full time Grade 8 Enterprise Coordinators employed by the GLA’s Team London and co funded by the National network provider the Careers & Enterprise Company. To date over 120 schools and 190+ Enterprise Advisers have been engaged in the London network.
The original pilot proposal for the network was submitted in 2015 in partnership with the London
Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) (Formerly London Enterprise Partnership) and the GLA Education
and Youth Team. The project funding for academic years 15/16 and 16/17 came from the GLA’s Team
London, the Careers & Enterprise Company and the Minor Programmes GLA budget. The receipt and
expenditure of funding received for this delivery was covered in MD1559 and MD1661.
The Enterprise Adviser Network supports schools to deliver the wider London Ambitions strategy, supported by the GLA Education and Youth Team, GLA Economic and Business Policy Unit and the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP). Team London was commissioned by the former London Enterprise Panel (LEP) P to deliver this programme on behalf of the GLA and Team London feeds in to the London Ambitions Advisory Group.
We seek £12,000 to deliver an ‘Explore Your Horizons’ event. During the day, up to 250 Year 8 and Year 9 students, from Enterprise Adviser Network schools, will have the chance to take part in business challenges and careers related workshops. They will then put their newly developed skills to the test, networking with up to 250 business professionals from hundreds of different industries across London. This will help them to find out more about the 1,000s of career options available to them. Up to 50 Enterprise Advisers and 40 Young Event Volunteers will also be in attendance to work with the students and bring the challenges to life.
The objective of the event is to;
o Support schools to inspire their young people before they take their GCSE options, helping them to discover different types of jobs and sectors and ultimately to make informed choices
o Provide teachers with opportunities to find out first hand from businesses the career pathways and opportunities available to their young people
o Galvanise the existing Enterprise Adviser Network and businesses taking part, to encourage them to work more closely with schools and give them the tools to do this
We expect to meet the following KPIs;
3.1 These initiatives will uphold the GLA’s commitment to Equality and Diversity. Team London volunteering projects aim to ensure that all Londoners can access volunteering opportunities and indeed by doing so support other Londoners equally throughout the city.
3.2 Our projects particularly promote equal life chances; reducing barriers to social mobility, demonstrating improvements in social integration and effective community engagement. This will involve working with young people, under-represented and disconnected Londoners to advise and educate them, better equipping them for entering the world of work.
3.3 The event is open to all secondary schools across the Enterprise Adviser Network, of which there are 120 across 18 boroughs. Schools are asked to select young people who will benefit the most. In particular, schools are encouraged to select young people who are at risk of under achieving academically, to motivate and inspire them. Ultimately this event should support young people attending to break down barriers by informing them of the different options available to them.
3.4 The event will also inform better social integration and understanding between education leaders and business volunteers; supporting a better understanding of challenges within education for businesses and a greater understanding of the world of work and changing employment landscape for teachers and students.
a) The key risks and issues, including mitigation, are outlined below;
b) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
“Explore Your Horizons” is targeted at young people from across a broad range of London’s secondary schools about to choose their GCSE options. The event will contribute towards;
i) Working with schools to improve careers advice and to promote opportunities for children to get an early start in career skills such as coding or engineering – and making sure all such advice and programmes are gender blind, creating equal opportunities for boys and girls.
ii) Improving provision of careers advice in schools through the Enterprise Adviser Network, supporting the Skills for Londoners taskforce in developing an all age careers offer and promoting pathways such as apprenticeships
iii) Supporting businesses to develop their future talent pipeline, particularly within STEM and Construction
iv) Ensuring that communities across London have access to training, and that from a young age both girls and boys are encouraged to explore the skills they need to get on in the future economy
c) impact assessments and consultations.
The event is being held to support schools to improve their careers provision, as well as provide young people with an opportunity to learn more about different sectors and the world of work. Education and Employers Taskforce latest research finds an 86% reduction in the chance of young people being not in employment, education or training (NEET) following 4 or more encounters with the world of work (Dr Anthony Mann, Education & Employers Taskforce, 2017). This event responds to the research, by giving the schools a platform to allow their young people to meet representatives from across a range of sectors, industries and experience
The event also supports schools to work towards the London Ambitions recommendation of providing young people with 100 hours of “experiences of the world of work”.
After last year’s “UK’s Largest Speed Networking Event for Young People” we consulted with relevant stakeholders and requested feedback through questionnaires and surveys. The event format was changed this year based on the feedback received. The main changes are outlined below;
a. School leads have indicated that there is a lack of business engagement within schools for the younger year groups. We have reframed the event to target Year 8 and Year 9 students, pre GCSE options, rather than Year 9 – 11.
b. We have included a teacher marketplace for teachers to network with each other and business/provider representatives. This will allow teachers to take their own learnings regarding different career pathways back into school and connect into existing programmes
c. To provide a higher quality interaction, the event will focus on one cohort of students, rather than two sessions. Young people will be supported to develop their employability skills through a workshop, before putting their newly found skills to the test during speed networking with business volunteers. We will also be able to capture more in depth evaluation and “distance travelled” of beneficiaries throughout the day.
We will use a number of qualitative and quantitative metrics to capture impact of the event on all stakeholders.
5.1 This decision requests approval to spend £12,000 on Catering, Media, Branding and Volunteer expenses for the Team London Enterprise Advisers ‘Explore Your Horizons’ event.
5.2 This expenditure will be funded by the external income from the Enterprise Advisers budget, approved through MD2124, which forms part of Team London’s Programme budget for 2017/18 financial year.
Signed decision document
ADD2158 Team London Advisors Network (signed) PDF