Newham Education Business Partnership - Mentoring

All of the borough’s secondary students are placed on a 2 week Work Experience Placement by NEBP Trident. This work experience helps them prepare for the world of work by giving them hands on experience. We always try to find placements that are as relevant and useful for the students as possible. Sometimes this can have quite an impact on the choices students make.

Zoheb Aftab, a 15 year old student from the New Tunmarsh Centre spent 1 week working in our Newham Trident office as part of his work experience programme. After some time he confided that what he actually really wanted was to do something in Law. As he wasn’t doing very well at the Centre, he never thought he could realise his dream of becoming a solicitor. Trident managed to secure him a place at Stratford Magistrates Court during February 2006. After this Work Experience Placement he received such a glowing report from the Court that it helped to secure him a place at Leyton 6th Form. Here he will be studying the BTEC GNVQ First Diploma in Business, which will hopefully lead to his A Levels in Law. All this might not have happened without his Work Experience Placement.

The NEBP and their Newham Trident section are working on providing Extended Work Experience Placements for the Newham Young People’s College to support their New Directions programme.

The programme is mostly targeted towards students who would benefit greatly from hands-on experience in a less academic environment. To engage them and keep them in education they are provided with an alternative programme 2 days a week while they attend school conventionally the other 3 days.
However, regular students who feel they would benefit from Extended Work Experience Placements in their Further Education, can also use the programme.

An important part of this alternative education programme consists of an Extended Work Experience Placement. Instead of only going on a regular 2 week Work Experience Placement, like all Newham students, these students will also be on an Extended Work Experience Placement for 1 day a week for the duration of a whole year and even up to two years in some cases.

NEBP and the Newham Trident section make sure all students of this programme will be provided with an Extended Work Experience Placement that will suit their needs and will help them to get the most from their skills and abilities. They will also be providing ongoing support for both students and businesses involved in the programme.

Tate & Lyle, a long-standing partner of the NEBP, have been awarded the Gold Award at the Food & Drink Federation Community Partnership Awards 2006. This award highlights the industry’s social responsibility achievements. They are open to the whole of the UK food and drink chain and are the top industry awards for the sector. Jim Knight MP, Minister for Rural Affairs handed the award to Ken Wilson, Community Relations Officer at Tate & Lyle for its outstanding community involvement.

Tate & Lyle’s community involvement focuses on education to raise academic achievement levels and to increase employability skills. They work closely with the NEBP to realise their community programme by offering volunteers and financial support for various programmes for schools in Newham.
“As a major employer, Tate & Lyle has an important role to play in supporting education and we want to help local children understand that what they do at school prepares them for the world of work they will experience as adults”, said Michael Grier, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager.

The NEBP would like to congratulate Tate & Lyle on receiving this award and would like to thank them for their valuable work in the community of Newham.

Enterprise Days focus on building upon and introducing students to key qualities and skills that are essential in the modern work place. These include teamwork, communication, problem solving, presenting, meeting deadlines, competition and creativity. Using a range of professional Learning Providers, year groups participate in a full day of enterprise education. Each day involves dividing a year group into morning and afternoon workshops that aim to be interactive, educational and enjoyable. Activities can range from designing, building and marketing a prototype rollercoaster, building a large paper tower to a set criteria, creating a T-shirt to a given theme and designing a music CD cover. After the morning and afternoon workshops, the whole year group enjoys an awards and presentation session. Here students who excelled in sessions are awarded with prizes and asked to present their work to the whole year.

There was a total of 16 Enterprise Days during the 2005/06 academic year. These took place within five secondary schools including Rokeby, Kingsford, Little Ilford, Cumberland and Brampton Manor.

The NEBP is very pleased that reactions of teachers have been very positive. Commenting on the Enterprise Days Mike Felton, Enterprise and Work Related Learning Co-ordinator at Little Ilford said “This was a very valuable experience for our pupils. The ability to work as a team and consider other people’s views and meet deadlines has become more important in the modern workplace. Our Enterprise Week gave them all an opportunity to see the need for these skills first hand by doing a series of activities across the day”. For the NEBP it is also very important to know the response of students towards the programme. Ravneet Kaur, year 10 student at Little Ilford, said: “We worked in groups and designed a cyber Internet café and a tower. We got an idea of how to work in a team for when we start our careers. It was a great experience and I learned a lot.”

It is always a source of pride for the NEBP to be given official recognition of a job well done through awards and acknowledgements. In January 2006 the NEBP was re-accredited with the ‘National Quality Award’ for their work. Special mention was made of the way the NEBP collaborates with other parties within the local authority and companies, the considerable amount of engagement with regeneration development and the commitment to maintain working with the primary schools.

The March 2006 Ofsted’s ‘Joint Area Review‘ of the London Borough of Newham, reserves a special mention for the NEBP. It acknowledges that ‘Newham Education Business Partnership works effectively to raise aspiration and teachers’ business awareness’ and that ‘School based work experience is efficiently co-ordinated by NEBP’.

In May 2006 the NEBP has been reviewed by the ‘Investors in People’ and the conclusion of the assessor was they were ‘totally satisfied that Newham Education Business Partnership meets the requirements of the Investors in People National Standard’. This means the NEBP is entitled to be an official ‘Investor in People’.

Newham Trident, the work experience section of the NEBP organises all Pre-16 Work Experience Placements for the students of Newham. They have just achieved re-accreditation of ‘The National Standard for Work Experience Organisers’ through the Centre for Education and Industry. It assesses whether the current practices satisfy each of the quality criteria that make up the National Standard. Newham Trident has been awarded the accreditation for a further three years.

Secondary students in all schools of Newham are involved in a wide range of work related-activities to increase their knowledge of the ‘world of work’. The NEBP is pleased to offer these students the opportunity to gain accreditation for their work within the National Qualification Framework. The qualification is to be called “Career Planning”.The NEBP has formed a partnership with ASDAN (an internationally recognised awarding body) to accredit the work done on NEBP programmes so students can gain between 23 and 46 points counting towards their GCSE totals (normally 200 points for 5 GCSEs). To achieve this, students will need to participate in all key programmes of the Course and keep a portfolio on skills and knowledge developed during these programmes. Volunteers from various businesses and organisations, especially from LBN, are recruited and trained to act as facilitators and to help the students achieve their goals.

To complete the course students need to participate in a ‘Building Opportunities and Skills Seminar Day’, a ‘Mock Interview’, an ‘Enterprise Day’ and a two-week ‘Work Experience Placement’. All these programmes are provided by the NEBP and are facilitated by volunteers.

The programme’s start-up costs have been funded by The Learning Skills Council. To enable the programme to continue the NEBP has received funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. This pilot programme is under close scrutiny as its success might have implications for other students.

The Newham Education Business Partnership is even busier than anticipated in our last newsletter! With all the new programmes and developments in Newham there was a need for new staff to make sure we could meet all the challenges coming our way. That is why we recently welcomed no less than 4 new members of staff at our offices at Warton House.

Mehgul Khan is our new Project Manager and Lisa Dolton takes up the new role of Project Administrator. To facilitate our Extended Work Experience Programmes we welcome Laura Yearsley as Engagement Co-ordinator while Wouter Bless is our new Business Development Manager as we need many additional businesses to provide volunteers for all our new and running projects.

Thirty Students from Sarah Bonnell School have been given the opportunity by the Newham education Business Partnership to show off their business skills by setting up and running a healthy eating Tuck-shop called ‘Schoolworth’.

You might be forgiven for thinking it, but ‘Schoolworth’ is no ordinary Tuck-shop. Beforehand students were asked to design and present a Business Plan in order to apply for a loan to set up their Healthy Eating Tuck-shop. Once they had presented their Business Plan, teachers and representatives from the world of work judged whether it warranted the loan that students needed to set up ‘Schoolworth’. I’m happy to say that the students passed with flying colours!

To help students compile and present a Business Plan, professionals from HSBC, Newham EBP and Sainsbury’s were on hand to guide students through a series of activities focusing on marketing, cash-flow and business management. By passing on their experience and knowledge during a four-day programme, students were able to put everything that they had learnt into practice. For some of the students the experience may also prove the catalyst for a future career in running their own business!

Apart from healthy snacks and drinks, ‘Schoolworth’ will also sell a range of other goods including school stationery. Any profit that the students will undoubtedly make will firstly be used to buy additional stock and secondly to repay the loan that was originally needed to start-up the Tuck-shop. Using students of mixed ability, the programme provides students with a large amount of responsibility that most of them thrive upon. In order for the Tuck-shop to prove a long-term success, the group will have to show the same enterprising skills that were clearly on show when they designed and presented their Business Plan.

Quotes:
“HSBC Bank values highly the opportunity to work within the community. Sarah Bonnell Tuck-shop Project was a fantastic opportunity for us to work with a local school and pass on our experience and knowledge for a great cause” Imran Zulfiqar – HSBC Bank

“The Healthy Eating Tuck-shop is an excellent opportunity for students to gain real hands on experience of running a small business. Hopefully some of these students will be able to use this experience and knowledge that they have gained in their future careers” Robert Pope – Project Manager - Newham EBP

“Sarah Bonnell tuck-shop, otherwise known as SCHOOLWORTH, is a new initiative that aims to expose our students to the opportunities and challenges that come with running a small business. This excellent opportunity allows our girls to participate in a school activity that recognises them for doing something positive.”
Omolara Tunde – Teacher – Sarah Bonnell School.

“Its great to be chosen to be part of SCHOOLWORTH because of the added responsibility it gives us within our school. I have learnt a range of new skills that I can use for when I’m older” Naomi Hart – pupil - 13yrs.

“The training in preparation of the opening of SCHOOLWORTH was really helpful as I like the idea of running a business when I’m older.” Jackie Anan – pupil - 15.

For any further information please contact Robert Pope at Newham Education Business Partnership
Tel – 020 8430 4969

E-mail – robert.pope@newham.gov.uk