POLITICS


Chris Hobson, Director of Policy at the Chamber, said: “Supporting businesses and schools to engage with each other is something we’ve been working on for a long time, with some great success stories and also some frustration. It’s a space where there are numerous partners active, for example the Careers and Enterprise Company, and where possible and appropriate, we’ve looked to join with them to enhance and unify delivery. “However, we’ve often focused our efforts on


priming the ‘demand’ side of the equation – getting our businesses engaged and ready to work with schools. Where we’ve had less impact has been on the ‘supply’ side, ie, working with the schools themselves. “We have some real exemplars in our patch.


For example, it was great to take Shirebrook Academy down to London last November where it was highly commended at a national level for its business and education partnership work. “But there are others that need further


support to get the engagement right and understand the full value. This is where we can up our game.” To this end, the Chamber has devised two new forms of membership specifically for secondary schools in the East Midlands, with the ultimate aim being to offer every secondary school in our region a level of Chamber membership. “By bringing them into the business family we


can more readily and actively support them to work with businesses, and vice-versa. We can devise new products, specifically targeted at schools and their pupils, and take more of a sleeves-rolled-up approach to meaningfully bridging the gap between employers and young people,” Chris continued. “This is by no means a silver bullet. And it also


doesn’t detract from the wider work we do with colleges, universities, people out of work and other partners across this landscape. But what it will do over the coming months is help to develop some new, meaningful relationships between businesses and schools that over time can lead to real results both for the employers and the young people – we’re really excited to see the impact this will bring.” And that’s how you eat an elephant… one bite


at a time.


For further details on the Chamber’s policy activity, skills campaign and work with schools please contact policy@emc-dnl.co.uk or visit bit.ly/EMC_SkillsCampaign


business network April 2019 49


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