How have employers adapted to continue their vital support to a young person’s careers education during the pandemic? This was one of the key questions asked at STEM Learning’s virtual business breakfast this month.
March’s event saw a panel made up of representatives from STEM Learning and lead organisations in construction and the careers and enterprise sectors joined by over 90 colleagues from businesses across the country, keen to share their experiences, learn from each other and look at ways we can work together now and going forward.
The panel included:
- Chair and host - Liz Whitworth, Bid Development Officer, STEM Learning
- Frankie Jones, Skills, Education and Employment Manager, Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture
- Gemma Taylor, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Lead STEM Learning
- Helen Clements, Social Value Manager, Morgan Sindall Construction
- Kelly Dillon, Education Sector Manager, Inclusion, The Careers and Enterprise Company
- Mark Wood, Regional Network Lead, STEM Learning
Liz Whitworth started the session highlighting how recent evidence showed that it is currently the right time to capture the hearts and minds of young people with recent data showing that the pandemic has shown a rise in interest from young people in pursuing a STEM pathway.
A major part of the conversation was about the amazing role teachers had played in adapting their teaching during the last year and the creative and innovative approaches business and schools had made to ensure they continued to support the career education of students virtually. It was clear that both employers and schools had been on a huge digital learning curve but that this had transformed and improved their reach and engagement, enabling them to enrich their offer going forward.
Kelly Dillon reflected in particular about careers education being more important than ever before. She talked about how young people had faced a large amount of negative news over the last year and that it was important to show them that their future career prospects were still positive and that employers still wanted to engage with them. From virtual careers fairs and mentoring programmes to virtual tours, she enthused about the opportunities that young people had been given in this virtual world that may not have been possible face-to- face.
STEM Learning’s Mark Wood highlighted how the STEM Ambassador programme had adapted its provision of support with Ambassadors attending virtual events that they may not have been able to attend due to travel constraints Virtual events have enabled STEM Ambassadors from anywhere in the country to speak directly to students in schools to inspire students without the need for travel – extending the communication possibilities for many employers to talent pools previously out of reach to them. He also shined a light on the Illuminating Careers Event - an online careers fair with 25 national employers that had taken place in National Careers Weeks. This event was a great example of collaboration between AECOM and the STEM Ambassador Programme – engaging 1,200 schools with 130,000 students signing up across the week (51% female). The event had a really positive impact, made even greater by the fact it was virtual and able to reach so many more people across the UK and beyond! This will certainly be an approach along with other virtual events and activities that will go forward to form part of a more blended approach.
Helen Clements from Morgan Sindall Construction also shared some examples of the adaptions they had made to their careers support for young people. She highlighted the success of their virtual work placements programme which has enabled them to attract and accommodate a larger number of diverse students compared to their previous face to face programme - an increase from 10 students based in Ipswich to 300 students UK-wide participating in their virtual programme by the end of April. She also talked about how engaged the students had been throughout their week-long virtual programme stating that she had received many positive quotes, including: ‘this week has been the best week of my teenage life’. She also explained that they had received a large uptake from students to become facilitators in their programme due to their increased confidence after participating in the virtual placement.
To meet some of the challenges faced by schools in the pandemic, Frankie Jones explained how STEM Learning had approached them to collaborate to produce a mini podcast series on the five key construction career areas which were made accessible to schools and colleges during National Careers Week. She explained how important it was for them to ensure that students realised that the sector was not dominated by a predominately male workforce and that construction was not just about working in a muddy construction site. The podcasts were successful in highlighting to students that there are so many other career opportunities available in this sector, suitable for a more diverse workforce.
STEM Learning’s Gemma Taylor reflected on the amazing effort that business and schools had made over the last year and emphasised how career education guidance was more important than ever - especially the work to link career leaders and teachers. She also encouraged participants at the business event to engage with STEM Learning’s employer programmes that would enable STEM businesses to link with schools and young people. The STEM Ambassador programme, Nuffield Research Placement programme and the ENTHUSE partnership programme were all key ways to support this vital connection. She also emphasised the valuable work STEM Learning had recently undertaken in partnership with The Careers and Enterprise Company to produce ‘An employer’s guide to supporting STEM careers education in England’ – a toolkit for employers to provide guidance on how best to support school’s provision of STEM careers education, contributing to the eight Gatsby Benchmarks for Good Career Guidance.
Finally, what was very clear in the discussion from all the panel members and participants was the level of enthusiasm to support young people with a STEM education. The creative and flexible approaches taken by business and schools to enable them to continue vital careers education support over the last year has proved successful in engaging larger and more diverse numbers of young people. There was a strong desire to adopt a more ‘blended’ approach of both virtual and face-to face employer and student engagement initiatives and to build on the successes from the last year in engaging our young people to be the creatives and innovators of tomorrow.
Our next virtual business breakfast is taking place on 29th April 2021 where we will be looking at the importance of attracting a diverse and skilled STEM workforce able to support STEM industry and contribute significantly to the UK’s economy. Register here for your free place
If you are an employer that has been inspired by our recent business discussion and share our mission of a world-leading STEM education for every young person in the UK, whatever their background, please contact our employers team.
Links
Find out more about our:
- ENTHUSE partnership programme
- Nuffield Research Placement programme
- An employer’s guide to supporting STEM careers education in England