VIEWS & OPINION
Embedding employability education: how the Government can help equip young people with the skills needed for the future world of work
Embedding employability ty
education: howthe Government can help equip young p eopl e with the skills needed for the futureworld ofwork
Comment by KIRSTIE MACKEY, Head of Barclays LifeSkills
Comment by KIRSTIEMACKEY, Head of Barclays LifeSkills
Preventing CSAI
through digital life skills MARK BENTLEY,
Online Safety Comment by
ty and
SafeguardingManager, London Grid for Learning
A few weeks ago, I attended theWestminster launch of a new Technology Briefing Series fromcross-party think tank Demos. The first paper in this series was a joint effort with the InternetWatc h Foundation (IWF) and covered the difficult topic of Online Child Sexual Abuse Imagery (CSAI).
The world of work is changing dramatically. Economic, societal and technological forces are leading to increased global collaboration, agile working and
automation.Matthew Taylor’s report on modern working practices painted a vivid picture of the opportunities and costs associated with these new ways of working and the skills that young people will need to navigate them. The Government’s GoodWork Plan has once again focused awareness on the implications for young people and the need to equip them with not just academic results, but also these core transferable employabilit y
However, latest fi skills.
gures from ONS show that 790,000 young people (aged
16 to 24) in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and research continues to show that UK businesses do not feel young people are ready for work when leaving education. According to YouGov, in 2014 97% of employers believe soft skills are important to the success of their business, but three-quarters believe there is a soft skills gap in the UK workforce. As the new Careers Strategy and Ofsted prioritise quality careers advice, finding the time to embed employability teaching into an already packe d timetable can be challenging for educators .
Collaboration betw Collaboration between businesses and educators tween businesses and educators
Employers understand the labour market better than anyone. This means they have the power to deliver informed advice to schools and teachers, whilst equipping students with the right tools, skills and information.
Research also shows that students who interact with employers are less likely to find themselves without employment, education or training, while a study we undertook with the Education and Employers Charity found that nine out of ten secondary school teachers believe that quality work experience and employer related activities are critical to achieving top grades
However, there a at school.
re a large number of different employability schemes and
resources available, not to mention different views on which skills are most important and how to instil them. Locating the best quality option for thei r students can still ta ke up valuable time for educators .
National Framework National Framew or k
To achieve maximum impact, businesses and educators need support from the Government through a nationwide, consistent approach to employability. In its response to the Taylor Review earlier this month, the Government confirmed it is planning a unified framework of employability skills as part of the technical education reforms. However, our experience is that the need to define core transferable skills for the 21st century workplace is universal and areas of education, not just technical education. s proposed framework has the potential to offer real neration and provide educators with the support they
value to the next ge The Government’ will be crucial for all
need to embed the best quality employability education in the curriculum. However, we strongly believe that more works needs to be done .
Our approach to equipping young people with these skills needs to change with the times and keep pace with developments in the job market. Government, businesses and educators need to work together to renew our focus and energy on understanding the needs of young people, educators and employers. Only then can we truly identify long-term solutions to some of the barriers and challenges we currently face and best prepare today’s young people for the future world of work.
Marc h 02 1 8 2018
The report, aimed at policymakers, highlights emerging trends in this area and also celebrates success in reducing the percentage of CSAI content hosted in the UK – it dropped from18%in 1996 to 0.1%in 2018. Other points include recommended responses to CSAI and ways to prevent it occurring.
They key take-away for teachers and senior leaders however, is the firmrecommendation that digital life skills should be taught as part of the PSHE curriculum. The report highlighted reported images in 2015 were ‘self-generate
d’ and that ‘sextortion’ – that around one fifth of
the threat to release images unlessmore ar e produced - is a growin g problem.
So what can teachers do to help teach digital skills in the classroom? To help you get started here are some of the key topics which can help prevent young people becoming victims of online abuse .
Understanding digital footprints Understanding digital footprints
A digital footprint is all the information a person leaves about themselves online. Even as adultsmany of us aren’t good at keeping track of the personal information we share. Tell students to try googling themselves – what information can they glean about themselves fromthe internet? It’s also important to flag that information shared online is not always trackable or easy to delete. Deleting a photo fromour own phone doesn’tmean all copies of it are destroyed.
But lest we forget, a digital footprint can be a great thing, so remember to focus on the positive paths young people tread online as well, and help themto leave amark on the online world they can b e proud of in years to come .
Geotagging and location setting Geotagging and location setting
Sharing information on the go is the normfor themajority of young people. Inmany ways this can be positive - parents are able to communicate with children and young people have new opportunities to socialise. However, without an accurate knowledge of what information we are sharing, location services become extremely problematic. Some apps use geotagging to pinpoint users activity to a particular place – often as accurate as the str As ever, the key here is education. Take a
’
look at the way different eet or even house.
apps work and get students to complete an audit of their own social media examining what information and images are public and how easy it would be for someone to track their movements .
Communicatingwith others Communicating with others
Learning how to communicate well online is important – after all, the vastmajority of children’s future careers will depend on it. Luckily the same rules and guidelines that apply to the offline world are applicable in the online world as well. Pressuring someone into doing something or taking pictures theymay feel uncomfortable sending is every bit as unacceptable online as it is off. Ensuring young people know it is okay to say no is crucial as well. And equipping young people with the skills they need to stand up for their friends and support themwhen they face difficult situations is vital as well.
For further advice and resources on safeguarding and digital skills visit
digisafe.lgfl.net
www. wwweducation-toda
y.co.uk.co.uk 52
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