ADD2481 Virtual Work Experience

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

1.2 The volunteers and schools are supported by paid employees called Enterprise Coordinators (EC). Each EC has up to 25 schools or colleges and oversees a portfolio of up to 40 Enterprise Advisers (EAs). These roles are match funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company.

1.3 MD2609 approved expenditure of up to £ 2.065m to support the expansion of the London Enterprise Adviser Network for the period September 2020 to August 2021.

1.4 A national key performance indicator for the programme is the percentage of schools and colleges offering one experience of the world of work before students are 16 years old and one after.

1.5 As a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools and colleges face uncertainty around closure of their premises and the ability to allow students to visit workplaces, which means students are less likely to be able to benefit from traditional work experience.

1.6 This funding would allow the GLA to develop resources for teachers, students and parents to help schools and colleges deliver impactful experience of the world of work virtually.

2.1. A core KPI of the LEAN is the achievement of the Gatsby Benchmarks and in particular Gatsby Benchmark 5 (encounters with employers) and Gatsby Benchmark 6 (experiences of the workplace). Currently, 39% of schools and colleges matched with an Enterprise Adviser in London fully achieve Gatsby Benchmark 6 which means they offer one experience of the world of work before students are 16 years old and one experience after.

2.2. By August 2020, the LEAN must ensure that 55% of schools and colleges matched with an Enterprise Adviser in London have fully achieved Gatsby Benchmark 6. With schools and colleges less likely to be able to physically send students out to workplaces, we anticipate a considerable drop in the achievement of Gatsby Benchmark 6 representing fewer students who are having experiences of workplaces.

2.3. The funding would allow the GLA to procure a service provider to develop resources for schools and colleges to deliver virtual experiences of the world of work. The service provider would also need to pilot these resources in a small number of schools and colleges.

2.4. The service provider must:

• develop content and design for a minimum of four virtual work experience packages for schools and colleges;

• ensure that each package contains:

o teaching resources for schools and colleges;

o a student workbook;

o an employer guide;

o a parent guide;

• align the resources packages to careers in the following key sectors:

o construction;

o creative Industries;

o digital;

o sustainability (with a construction focus);

• work with a minimum of five schools or colleges to pilot delivery of the virtual work experience; and

• provide a brief summary report detailing the challenges and opportunities identified through the pilot.

2.5. By developing and disseminating guidance and resources on how to deliver experiences of the world of work in a virtual way, we expect to see a less drastic drop in the achievement of Gatsby Benchmark 6 this academic year.

3.1. The Enterprise Adviser Network has worked with careers leaders in schools and colleges to address the needs of every cohort of students. The lessons learned from this have been reviewed and incorporated into the specification for this project.

3.2. The resources will showcase people working in various industries with diverse lived experiences and protected characteristics to tackle stereotyping based on race, gender or any of the protected characteristics (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment).

4.1. The Department for Education’s (DfE) National Careers Strategy, “Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents” and Statutory Guidance states that access to the Enterprise Adviser Network will be available to all secondary schools and colleges to support careers education.

4.2. The LEAN supports the achievement of a variety of Mayoral Strategies including, the Mayor’s Skills for Londoners Strategy, Sport for all of us, The Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy for London and the Mayor’s Culture for all Londoners Strategy.

4.3. As a consequence of Covid-19, schools and colleges are facing closures or are not allowing students to go off-site or have employers visit the premises. Careers Leaders need to transform their delivery of careers education to be impactful in a virtual environment. This is challenging for traditional in-person workplace experiences and this funding would provide schools and colleges with the resources to offer meaningful virtual workplace experiences to their students. This is vital to ensure young people are still receiving the information, advice and guidance they need to make an informed decision about their futures.

4.4. If this decision was not approved, there would be a risk to the achievement of the key performance indicator for the achievement of Gatsby benchmark 6 for the LEAN. By procuring a service provider to create these resources we are mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on the opportunity for young people to have experiences of the world of work.

4.5. To ensure the resources are of a high quality, the CEC has designed a quality checklist for virtual experiences of the workplace and service providers will need to evidence how their resources would satisfy these requirements.

4.6. There are no conflicts of interest for anyone involved in the preparing of this decision document.

5.1. Approval is sought for expenditure of up to £25,000 to procure a service provider to deliver virtual work experience resources.

5.2. The expenditure will be funded from the 2020-21 London Enterprise Adviser Network Programme budget (CSR and ESV Programme) within Team London and Community Sports Unit (£21k), and external income to be received from the Careers & Enterprise Company (£4k), for which approval is also requested.