This study used a randomised control trial to investigate whether attending just three career talks by employee volunteers had an impact on students’ GCSE results, the hours they planned to spend revising for these exams, their attitudes towards learning, and confidence in their career prospects. Around 650 Year 11 students from five schools took part in the trial and were split into an intervention group that attended three 20 to 30-minute careers talks and a control group that did not attend any.

The results indicate small but consistent improvements in the attitudes of the intervention group, and a ‘positive and statistically significant’ relationship between revision hours and career talks. The results also reveal an indicative, direct link between career talks and the intervention group outperforming their predicted GCSE results relative to the control group.

As technology transforms how we do things, so too are the opportunities for the use of technology in education becoming more apparent. This report looks at how technology can be most effectively integrated in the classroom and provides guidance to senior leaders and teachers so that they can make better informed decisions about its use. It concludes is that technology must be used in a way that is informed by effective pedagogy and that good implementation is crucial to success.

In addition to an overarching framework for considering how technology is best used, the report is structured around some of the key elements of effective teaching: explanations and modelling; pupil practice; assessment and feedback.

A research team led by Professor (Emeritus) Prue Huddleston of the University of Warwick’s Centre for Education Studies carried out the study, which included a literature review, followed by observations and interviews at five case study organisations and focus group work.

The study concludes that while it is vital to prepare students to move into the world beyond education, how this is done is just as important as to whether it is done at all; that to be effective, such education needs to be integral to the curriculum, not a ‘nice to have’ add-on; that financial constraints are holding back educators from doing more to develop the know-how, attitudes which young people need to succeed in work and other parts of their lives; that even with limited resources, schools would be more likely to prioritise commercial education if it became part of a statutory personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum; and that methods used to assess traditional learning are not always appropriate for programmes designed to develop enterprise and employability.

needed for the workplace but that delivery is patchy and a co-ordinated approach is now needed to help young adults make a successful transition from education to work.

Based on case studies which show how design, content, context and teaching methods can be part of a shift from ‘more’ to ‘better’. With recommendations for employers, educators and policy-makers. Lost in Transition is a summary of research conducted in 2017 by Trisha Fettes entitled ‘Putting Skills to Work’.

Future Frontiers works primarily in London but also in areas of high deprivation on the South Coast of England, delivering one-to-one careers coaching alongside a range of meaningful employer interactions that are aligned to the aspirations of young people. It currently works in 15 schools, supporting over 1,300 pupils, with over 470 university students and business professionals as career coaches.

CET grant support is for an external evaluation of the Future Frontiers coaching programme in two parts, to be undertaken by two research universities. The evaluation will test the programme’s effectiveness as well as track pupil destinations.

ARK currently runs 35 schools educating more than 21,000 pupils: all of the schools are non-selective and in areas with high levels of economic disadvantage or educational need.

The evaluation will look at the long-term impact of the Professional Pathways programme on student destinations and has the potential to create greater parity of esteem between vocational and academic pathways.

The research also enabled the identification of wider policy implications in relation to 14-19 education, early specialisation in a vocational field and other issues relating to further education, employer engagement, commercial education, skills development and social mobility. The research was co-funded with the Edge Foundation.

CET summarised key findings in its publication ‘Lessons From Employer Led Learning’. The full evaluation was published by The Edge Foundation (February 2020).

The study also explores the feasibility of evaluating such programmes, including tracking participants into the labour market. A summary of this report, Lost in Transition, was produced by CET in 2018 and is available on this website.

The study concludes that apprenticeships suffer from an image problem due to a shortage of knowledge and information and that support should be provided to schools and colleges to further raise the confidence of school staff in providing advice to interested students. It also advocates for more apprenticeship events involving employers; for schools and colleges should do more to engage parents; and for awareness of apprenticeships to be raised at a younger age. It also notes that schools and colleges should do more to challenge gender stereotypes and broaden the aspirations of young women who are thinking about apprenticeships.

Importantly, the study identifies attitudes and experiences (‘indicators’) which schools can influence in order to better prepare their young people for adult working life. The approach adopted is primarily designed to allow schools to identify students requiring greater levels of support to help them become well prepared.

A questionnaire and scoring system was developed resulting in a toolkit which has been designed to be comprehensive – relevant to students at all attainment levels – by making use of robust UK longitudinal data which compares students of similar characteristics (for example, socio-economic background, geographical area, attainment levels) to identify which factors which make a difference to economic outcomes (earnings and employment) in later life. It is available from the Education and Employers website.

The survey findings highlight that children from an early age often have some sophisticated and thought through ideas about who they want to become when they grow up. They also show that from a young age children often stereotype jobs according to gender and their career choices are based on these assumptions with the majority of boys wanting to be sportsmen and girls wanting to be teachers. Additionally, children’s career aspirations are most influenced by who they know – their parents and friends of parents and the TV and media. Worryingly, less than 1% of children have heard about the jobs through people from the world of work coming to their school. And the survey shows clearly for the first time that this is a global issue.

This two-year project by Karen Evans, David Guile and Judy Harris and its accompanying Book of Exemplars have been produced to encourage curriculum development teams to draw upon the research and think through, carefully and in depth, the purposes and processes involved in work-based learning.

This two-day event, focussed on employer engagement in education and training and how it relates to the Government’s plans for social mobility improvement, the implementation of its Industrial Strategy and improving the flow of skills into the labour market post Brexit.
The Education and Employers website holds comprehensive information on this conference with videos and short interviews.

It has become increasingly evident over the past ten years that the creative industries are not only thriving but evolving; as such, graduates are having to look at their careers in new ways, ways in which they must be proactive and confident to create their own work and opportunities, and develop a portfolio career.

The research will find out what LAMDA students and graduates need in order to set up and sustain careers in the creative industries. It will explore what enterprise and professional development tools are currently provided by LAMDA and other organisations; the potential career paths of its alumni; and, how best to prepare them for the industry that they enter into.

The goal is that all students benefit from this research – actors, directors and technicians – helping them to develop an entrepreneurial and collaborative mindset.

Through this programme, students will gain a greater understanding of what commercial education means and involves, and be exposed to a range of employment and career opportunities, dispelling misconceptions or stereotypes about who can succeed.

Students will be helped to develop their transferable employability skills; to increase their understanding of international trade; to understand the range of employment and career opportunities available within international trade; and, to increase their confidence in their own ability to succeed.

To see how the project is helping young people please click here.

Through grants from CET from 2015-18 Enabling Enterprise learned how to support teachers to transform the essential skills of their students. This critical next project aims to create the equivalent toolkit for school leaders, to drive change at the level of a whole school. As part of this EE will create, publish and promote a School Leaders’ Handbook which is a toolkit to help embed the Essential Skills in the Skills Builder Framework at a whole school level.

The alumni programme will help PJF students to both galvanise and utilise the meaningful enterprise experiences from their time at school, as well as develop new skills and networks that are essential to driving both their own career and the UK economy forward, whilst at the same time helping improve social mobility through PJF’s focus on less advantaged students.

In addition, the alumni programme will serve a monitoring and evaluation function and long-term impact evaluation. Through the programme PJF will develop the capacity to harvest and analyse longitudinal data on the outcomes of their programme.

The project will address previous lessons learnt from 3 years of CET-funded trainings to increase efficiency, drive forward recommendations made by beneficiaries and staff, and (vitally) fully hand over program delivery to Ghana Staff. This improvement in structure and delivery will increase the sustainability of ATE’s BizATE Programme, as well as the sustainability of the entrepreneurs supported by this programme.

The Enterprise Game is a key component of the Prince’s Trust’s Enterprise Challenge and is designed to be a short, sharp, fun and engaging intervention that will inspire and kick-start the development of enterprise skills, through the application of business knowledge, in a safe and engaging simulation. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds aged 11-18 are the target audience for the Challenge. 

The Enterprise Game is scheduled to launch in early 2020.

Previous research indicates that the continuing success and prosperity of UK plc depends in part to the health of its engineering sector which in turn needs a steady stream of STEM skills and entrepreneurial endeavour.

Young people can learn from the experience of successful entrepreneurs and employees. Businesses have the opportunity to put their company on the map and to help students develop employability skills. Their Workfinder app connects young people to work placements across the country

To date, competitions and seminars have been achieved at Nottingham University, City University London, University of Bristol and Kingston University. Additional funding from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation has led to an increase in the speed and scaling of prize competitions which will continue into 2019 and beyond.

The project provides small business owners (SBOs) with the necessary skills to kick start and grow a thriving business as a way of addressing the need for sustainable income generation in this region. With increased profits and savings, SBOs can support both themselves and their dependents. ATE’s approach ensures high retention and success rates, with SBOs on average trebling their monthly profit and securing savings for the future. Funding for this programme also includes the training of local trainers and consultants to deliver the programme. ATE is the only NGO providing business training in this part of Ghana.

He reflects on a decade of work with Enabling Enterprise (see ‘Recent Grants’), how he identified these skills, and the and the principles of how they can be built and used.

With a future of increasing automation, Tom makes a powerful argument that these skills are going to be vital not just in a school environment but in life in general.

The primary aim is to help approximately 3,000 learners aged 5-24 in educational centres across the country to develop essential employability skills such as confidence, communication, organisation, initiative, resilience, teamwork, problem solving and financial capability; and, to develop core behaviours such as self-esteem, aspiration, career intention and work readiness.

In 2018-19 the project will also train 70 teachers in enterprise and employability education and 20 teachers in financial and enterprise education. It will also involve the recruitment of volunteers from the world of business and commerce

The project focused on the Croydon area in its initial phase. Ten schools and 45+ businesses were involved with 3,000+ students and pupils benefitting from in a series of events and activities. The project led to the production of a model of business engagement in schools which is being extended in Croydon and delivered more widely across London.”

Ultimately, this project was a contributor to the development of the organisation’s Skills Builder Framework (featured under ‘Useful Resources’) and Skills Builder Partnership which is a national coalition of educators, employers and others committed to establishing a common language for essential skills; and, an understanding of the outcomes for your people in developing these skills to a high level of competence.”

Enabling Enterprise has also created a toolkit for employers that offers advice for embedding the essential skills, the Framework and the principles into work with young people. CET supported a project to develop enhanced training to teachers which ultimately contributed to the framework (see Recent Grants).

You can read a blog about the event by writer Anat Arkin, here: https://thecet.org/getting-through-hard-times/

These are: the Research Review Group (RRG); Early Career Researchers Network; Skills Shortages Analysis Group; Vocational Philosophy Research Network; Project Based Learning International Champions Network; Innovative Higher Education Network; Island Education Network and the UK Policy Learning Network

Teambuild attracts competitors from major contractors and consultancies representing all disciplines within the construction industry. CET supports the Prize for Leadership of the Future Leaders Competition.

Future Leaders is not only a training and results driven event but is also an opportunity for early careers staff to network between themselves and different companies.”

In 2019 the Lecture was delivered by Mme. Christine Lagarde who was then Chair and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. CET funded the Tacitus Lecture between 2005 and 2019.

This two-day event, focussed on employer engagement in education and training and how it relates to the Government’s plans for social mobility improvement, the implementation of its Industrial Strategy and improving the flow of skills into the labour market post Brexit.
The Education and Employers website holds comprehensive information on this conference with videos and short interviews.