Agenda item

[To consider a briefing note on careers and employability in schools]. 

The Skills and Employability Manager provided a presentation to the Panel, highlighting the careers and employability offer in schools which was directly provided by or commissioned by the Council, or delivered by partners such as the Black Country LEP in close partnership with the Council.

There were a number of services that coexisted and integrated through connexions which allowed users to access different services at different times.

The Council’s Workbox initiative underlay all of this and Officers stated that they would encourage all clients to sign up to Workbox to get as much help and guidance as they could.

The main services that were provided to schools under the theme of careers and employability were:

1. Connexions

2. Work experience

3. Careers and Enterprise support

It was noted that Connexions and the Council’s service provision to reduce young people not in education, employment or training (NEETS) was showing the best performance for many years. City of Wolverhampton was now best in the Black Countryfor the number of young people aged 16 – 18 who were participating in education, training and employment.

Work around those not in education, employment or training (NEETS) was also now based in the Civic Offices with drop in sessions available twice a week. This was working well and included support from an officer in the Youth Offending Team to help pick up young offenders and those with Special Education Needs.

The Enterprise Lead Officer worked in partnership with schools to ensure they were fulfilling their obligation with regards to careers such as ensuring students participated in enterprise activities, helping schools to forge links with employers, planning activities that were most effective in motivating young people, supporting independent choices and supporting positive outcomes.

Through delivery of the programme for the academic year 18-19 more than 15,000 students had benefited from the programme through the following activities:

·       Work Experience preparation;

·       Interview Preparation;

·       Practice Interviews;

·       Careers Fairs;

·       Speed Networking;

·       Guess My Job;

·       Guest speakers for assemblies;

·       Apprenticeship talks;

·       Meet the real apprentice;

·       Visit to Universities;

·       Visits to the workplace;

·       Enterprise challenges;

·       Employers supporting teachers in linking curriculum learning to different careers

The Work Experience Lead Officer had supported schools and the College through the Work Experience Support Service Level Agreement for over 20 years. The service was fully funded via schools.

Achievements to date included:

·       2563 students supported to access work experience in 2018/19

·       387 new employers engaged in 2018/19

·       100 work experience placements supported in the Council with 34% being from BAME backgrounds and 5 with disabilities.

It was hoped that this work would help to bring the Wolves at Work initiative to phase 2 where the scheme would help a young person when leaving school or choosing their options. The scheme would involve having personal advisors in schools picking young people and supporting them before they left.  By doing this it was hoped that even more barriers would be removed that might stop a young person getting into work, these included ensuring the young person had an outfit for an interview or was able to travel to an interview.

At the moment the Wolves and Work scheme was overperforming with 1605 people moving to an outcome (149%). The Council wanted to extend the scheme and Officers hoped to hear before Christmas if they would receive European funding to help the scheme extend to 2023.

There was also a desire to focus more on the 25 to 29 year age group. The main problem with this group was that they may have been unemployed for some time so were harder to reach.

Wolves at Work had been the Council’s flagship project with around 5000 residents being supported into work in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions, job centres and work coaches. Part of the upcoming work would also involve more focused work with the University to try and keep graduates in the city and support them into employment.

The Wolves at Work benefit to the economy was huge with an economic benefit of £30,311,400. This was based on getting 2307 people into work in the first year and over 5000 by end of March 2020, with around 3000 in sustained employment.  The Panel considered that this was an extraordinary figure that needed to be highlighted and praised along with the benefit that having people in work would have for other organisations such as the health service and police.

The Panel considered the work the Council was doing with the University and queried what the University provided in terms of income for the help the Council was be providing in bringing more students in on the bases that there would be jobs for them in the City when they finished their studies. Officers stated that they would look into this and that we were working in partnership with the University at the moment with no charge.

The Panel also noted that the Greater Manchester Combined Authority cost benefit analysis had been used and the question was raised as to why we did not have one of our own.

It was also noted that a number of the targets were self-set targets against which we were achieving but it would be useful to see our outcomes benchmarked against other similar local authorities.

The Panel considered that there was still more opportunity for investment in blue collar jobs and to look at further education and higher education establishments. Officers confirmed that work was carried out with academies and colleges too. Offers of help currently included work coaches to help applicants with internet-based applications where they had to go through processes including psychometric testing. 

Work was also carried out with tenants in WV Living accommodation to help them find work and ultimately improve their general wellbeing. A pathway for tenants was currently being considered.  It was confirmed that 15 development companies had signed up to a social value charter to engage with young people providing work taster sessions and apprenticeships. It was thought that there was more that could be done on this so the City and its residents could benefit. The Council had for example supported people into B&M and when the store closed, the Council went in the next day to help recruit those who had lost jobs. Any new store or business that opened, the Council offered support and help. 

The Panel requested that an update on all the issues mentioned above be brought back to a future meeting.

Resolved:     That the briefing note be received and Officers thanked for all of their hard work.