ADD2366 Explore Your Horizons 2019

The Enterprise Adviser Network (EAN) is a national programme that supports social mobility through matching up to two senior business volunteers (Enterprise Advisers) with a school or college careers leader to support them to increase business engagement with and develop a whole-school careers strategy and employer engagement plan that is representative of all pathways into employment and considers all sectors.

The Mayor approved expenditure of up to £ 2.668m, under cover of MD2262, to support the expansion of the London Enterprise Adviser Network for the period September 2018 to August 2020, comprising up to £1.268m CEC funding and £1.4m GLA funding. In March 2019 a further expenditure of up to £60,000 was approved under cover of DD2333, comprising of £30,000 LEAP (Local Enterprise Partnership for London) and £30,000 CEC (Careers and Enterprise Company) to allow the LEAN to take over responsibility for Croydon which had previously been covered by the Coast to Capital LEP.

By August 2020 all mainstream secondary schools, pupil referral units and FE colleges will have had the offer to be part of the LEAN. Uptake is expected to be circa 490 schools and colleges representing 80% uptake in schools and PRUs and 100% of FE colleges. To support this up to 700 senior business volunteers (Enterprise Advisers) will have been recruited.

This decision provides approval for expenditure of £13,000 to deliver the annual ‘Explore Your Horizons’ school speed networking event. During the day, between 250-270 students, from Enterprise Adviser Network schools, will have the chance to network with up to 250-270 business professionals from over a hundred different organisations across London. This will help them to find out more about the many career options available to them. Up to 20 Young Event Volunteers from the Team London HeadStart programme will also be in attendance alongside Team London staff to work with the students and help deliver the event.

The objective of the event is to;

• support schools to inspire their young people to consider the range of opportunities available to them by allowing them to discover different types of jobs, sectors, pathways in to employment and ultimately to support them to make more informed career choices.
• provide students with increased number of employer encounters with up to 10 different employers/employees. See 4.3 for research evidence on the impact of multiple employer encounters on young people.
• provide teachers with opportunities to find out first hand from businesses the career pathways and opportunities available to their young people.
• provide business employees from all sectors with an opportunity to volunteer with young people.
• to recruit Enterprise Advisers from business attendees who are not currently involved in the programme.

We expect to meet the following KPIs:

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Goods and services will be procured in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code. Should we need to enter a contract we will work with TfL procurement and complete a competitive exercise to ensure that value for money is sought and the code is followed.

These initiatives will uphold the GLA’s commitment to Equality and Diversity and will have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty. Team London volunteering projects aim to ensure that all Londoners can access volunteering opportunities, ensuring equality to those possessing protected characteristics and indeed by doing so support other Londoners equally throughout the city.

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.

The event is open to all secondary schools across the Enterprise Adviser Network, of which there are 312 across 32 boroughs. Schools are asked to select young people who will benefit the most. We have reviewed schools prior to selection to allow for children from varied backgrounds to take part. Pupils from multiple London boroughs will participate, ensuring a diverse representation of race, disability, gender, religion or belief and economic background. In particular, schools are encouraged to select young people who are at risk of under achieving academically or have not previously taken part in opportunities like this, to motivate and inspire them, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic. Ultimately this event will support young people attending to break down barriers by informing them of the different options available to them.

The event will also a) inform better social integration and understanding between education leaders, business volunteers and young people; b) support a better understanding of challenges within education for businesses c) allow a greater understanding of the world of work and changing employment landscape for teachers and students and d) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

Key risks and issues, including mitigation:

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

“Explore Your Horizons” is targeted at young people from across a broad range of London’s secondary schools. The event will contribute towards:

• Increasing employer encounters for students, a KPI with our national funder the Careers & Enterprise Company and referenced in the Careers for Londoners Action Plan. See below for the research evidence about why this is important.
• Improving provision of careers advice in schools through the Enterprise Adviser Network, supporting the Skills for Londoners Strategy
• Supporting businesses to develop their future talent pipeline, particularly within STEM and Construction, Digital and Creative industries in line with the Mayoral priorities outlined in the Skills for Londoners Strategy and the Mayor’s Good Work Standard.

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 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. Following this event, the young people in attendance will have received approximately 10 such encounters with business volunteers from a range of occupations and industries.

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”.

We will use a number of qualitative and quantitative metrics to capture impact of the event on all stakeholders, including those mentioned in 2.2.

The expenditure of up £13,000 will be funded from the 2019-20 Enterprise Adviser Network Programme budget, within the Team London and Community Sport Unit.