VIEWS & OPINION
Navigating the apprenticeship route Comment by JAYNE WORTHINGTON, Managing Director at The Skills Company and
Greater Manchester Apprenticeship Company representative
The UK is currently standing at an economic crossroads with no clear direction of travel; the one remaining constant is the need for a highly skilled, developed workforce to drive growth and productivity. In Greater Manchester alone we have seen a huge shift in the labour market in recent years. The region that once spearheaded the industrial era is now dominated by exciting, growing sectors such as life sciences, digital industries and the media. And as new sectors emerge, the skills demanded by employers is changing. Our offer as education and skills providers must respond to and reflect the economy of the future, keeping pace with technological advancements. Apprenticeships are a key part of this roadmap – offering a career pathway for individuals and the ability for businesses to effectively manage their talent in line with growth ambitions. In Greater Manchester the time had clearly come for the FE sector to transform its approach to careers advice and guidance. Being bold and putting aside potential competitive tensions, ten large institutions came together with policy makers to develop a ground breaking intiative, focusing on routeways into apprenticeships that could inspire young people, and drive inclusive growth across Greater Manchester’s priority sectors. The Greater Manchester Apprenticeship Company (GMAC), funded by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, was formed in 2016 as a partnership between ten education and training providers from across the region. This unique collaboration was born out of the desire to ensure Greater Manchester harnessed its talent, preparing our young people to navigate their way to a successful career.
At the core of the initiative is an innovative, online careers portal (This Is Me) providing students across the partnership with 24-7 digital employability support for the first time. Learners can instantly access a range of inspiring resources, watch employer videos for key job hunting tips, build CVs quickly and easily, and even practise and record interview skills with an online simulator. This is Me equips students with a broad and adaptable skill set, but can also crucially be tailored to ensure a better match with the skills needs of our local economy.
Supported by the forward-thinking Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the GMAC partnership has also brought together careers and apprenticeships professionals to network, train and share best practice in a way they have never done before. This work is already shaping the way wider careers advice and guidance will look for our partners over the coming years. A year in, we’re immensely proud of our achievements. We’ve trained more than 200 staff and almost 10,000 people have experienced the benefits of the This is Me careers portal, with over 130 learners progressing onto apprenticeships. And crucially, we’re inspiring meaningful conversations with young people, parents and employers about apprenticeships as a result. What this has required of our partners is a great deal of flexibility, responsiveness and willingness to engage in new ways. The model we have developed could readily be applied to other areas, ensuring careers support for all progression pathways remains relevant, effective and most importantly continues to inspire young people at a crucial crossroads in their lives.
The hills are alive with the sound of
Music.ly Comment by MARK BENTLEY, London Grid for Learning
Channel 4 News recently aired a major report into the inappropriate and sexual approaches that seem to have become standard on
Music.ly and
Live.ly. It was encouraging to see such a mainstream airing of problems the online safeguarding community has long been aware of. However before we look for quick fixes, beware – it’s not that simple. If you didn’t see the report on Channel 4 News
(
www.channel4.com/news/children-bombarded-with-sexually-explicit- chat-on-musical-ly-and-live-ly), then watch it now - it is a very well spent 11 minutes. If you have seen it, make sure your colleagues watch too, and consider whether it might be appropriate to share with parents. If you haven’t heard of the apps before,
Music.ly is an app which is mostly used to share clips of yourself lip-synching to popular music videos;
Live.ly is its live-streaming cousin. The apps are very popular with young children, and with those seeking interaction with young children. The Channel 4 team studied 45 hours of live streams from the two apps and found highly inappropriate content in nearly half the streams they watched. Children live streaming innocent videos received a mix of comments from peers as well as invitations to strip, touch themselves or engage in sex acts.
So far, so horrendous. But there is good news: I think it’s fabulous to see a serious online safeguarding issue being explored on primetime and elevated into the public consciousness. We need more of this, and I hope the media will recognise demand for more serious journalism on these issues. What we don’t need is more cheap headlines, however, and that is always the danger.
But please remember, these dangers do not just exist on two 18
www.education-today.co.uk
platforms, so we must not be tempted to vilify
Music.ly and
Live.ly and ban our children from using them, only to then sit back and rest on our offline laurels. That would lead to a very dangerous false sense of security – one that would endanger our children. We need to educate children on the risks which exist everywhere.
As child safety luminary John Carr says in the interview within the Channel 4 piece, predators often use one app to make initial contact and then ask the child to move to another. Neither children nor predators limit their behaviour to one app, so nor should we limit our concern or engagement.
So there are no easy answers. Staying up to date with the world of apps won’t stop problems arising, but is a good idea nonetheless. That’s why we have curated guidance, app news and even apps about apps from ten top safety providers at
apps.lgfl.net. Encourage your colleagues and parents to have a look.
One top tip from that page is the NSPCC’s NetAware app – once it’s on your phone you will have information about new apps at your fingertips, including child and parent reviews and independent ratings for age appropriateness, violence, sexual content etc. At the end of the day, we need social media companies to take responsibility for what their platforms are used for. We need the government to take these issues seriously. But neither of those are enough on their own. As ever, it is crucial to teach, model and consolidate behaviour and make sure everyone knows what to do when something feels uncomfortable or goes wrong. Cue a final link:
reporting.lgfl.net
July/August 2017
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