The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a review of the evidence on how employers can support schools to improve outcomes for pupils.
Researchers from Education and Employers reviewed the best international research to identify the interventions and approaches for which there is evidence of employers having a positive impact on young people’s outcomes, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Employer engagement in education can include activities like reading support programmes that aim to boost attainment, or activities like mentoring or work experience that are designed to influence attitudes and aspirations.
The researchers – Anthony Mann, Jordan Rehill and Elnaz T. Kashefpakdel – identified four broad areas of employer engagement in education that could benefit young people:
1. Boost young people’s understanding of jobs and careers
Broadening and raising career aspirations and supporting young people to make decisions on what to study, where to study, and how hard to study.
2. Providing the knowledge and skills demanded by the contemporary labour market
Helping young people to build the skills that modern workplaces need, such as creative problem-solving and team-working.
3. Providing the knowledge and skills demanded for successful school-to-work transitions
Giving young people relevant work experiences as well as practical insights into how recruitment processes work and contemporary workplaces operate.
4. Enriching education and underpinning pupil attainment
Using employers to support teaching resources for the classroom and helping young people to see the connection between what they learn at school and employment outcomes.
The review will inform the EEF’s grant-making, as they look to grow the evidence around careers education and employer engagement in education
Notes to editors
- The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is a grant-making charity set up in 2011 by the Sutton Trust as lead foundation in partnership with Impetus Trust (now part of Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation), with a £125m founding grant from the Department for Education. Since its launch the EEF has awarded £96.3 million to 160 projects working with over 1,000,000 pupils in over 10,000 schools across England. The EEF and Sutton Trust are, together, the government-designated What Works Centre for Education.
- Education and Employers is a U.K. charity created in 2009 to ensure that every state school and college has an effective partnership with employers to support young people. As well as undertaking research into the impact and delivery of employer engagement in education, the charity manages innovative programmes to enable schools and colleges to connect efficiently and effectively with employers — including www.inspiringthefuture.org. The charity works in close partnership with the leading national bodies representing education leaders, teaching staff, employers, and employees.