EBP Kent facilitated a range of bespoke, established and wholly unique programmes for thousands of secondary school students across the county. Industry involvement almost doubled in size compared to last year, increasing the impact that such a beneficial collaboration can have. SKILLS Festivals reached new heights this year, with even greater employer involvement and even larger numbers of students attending.
EBP Kent facilitated a range of bespoke, established and wholly unique programmes for thousands of secondary school students across the county. Industry involvement almost doubled in size compared to last year, increasing the impact that such a beneficial collaboration can have. SKILLS Festivals reached new heights this year, with even greater employer involvement and even larger numbers of students attending.
EBP Kent facilitated a range of bespoke, established and wholly unique programmes for thousands of secondary school students across the county. Industry involvement almost doubled in size compared to last year, increasing the impact that such a beneficial collaboration can have. SKILLS Festivals reached new heights this year, with even greater employer involvement and even larger numbers of students attending.
EBP Kent facilitated a range of bespoke, established and wholly unique programmes for thousands of secondary school students across the county. The mission of each project was: To raise the work ambitions of the students participating, encourage the development of key employability skills, encourage the research and application of new found techniques through industry-led challenges and increase the already formidable partnership between EBP Kent schools and employers. Industry involvement almost doubled in size compared to last year, increasing the impact that such a benecial collaboration can have on the future aspirations of the students involved. SKILLS FESTIVALS A mainstay of the EBP Kent calendar, the Skills Festivals reached new heights this year, with even greater employer involvement and even larger numbers of students attending. The 3 main festivals TeenTech (30 innovative companies from the world of STEM), West Kent Skillsfest (70 exhibitors) and the Big Bang/East Kent Skillsfest (90 exhibitors), offered a wealth of opportunity for excited students to see the very best that the world of work has to offer. Dancing robots, mind controlled car simulators, high powered generators and lab experiments brought to life as if straight out of a Mary Shelley novel, are but a few of the mind boggling exhibits carefully planned and introduced to around 4000 hungry young minds. In-school Skillsfests also became signicantly larger, with numerous schools able to take advantage of 35-40 exhibitors per institute. With 5000 students able to speak with industry experts visiting their schools, Kent can be comfortably assured that its young people are getting the highest level of inspiration possible. 2014 also saw the rst primary school skillsfest, dispelling the myth that there is a limit, age-wise to the impact such an event can have on long term ambitions. THE EPB KENT NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2 SEPTEMBER 2014 The whole event was very interesting and I have learnt lots of things that I can now pass onto the students. Teacher Comment ENTERPRISE & WORK EXPERIENCE PREPARATION The ever popular enterprise days naturally evolved, following current marketing trends and becoming shorter yet sharper to maintain relevance in an ever changing world. Working in conjunction with industry, the days were reformatted to include high-end branding techniques, whilst also encouraging greater freedom for the students to develop their own innovative advertising campaigns. The worlds of food and drink, cosmetics and engineering were all days that challenged students to develop the next wave of marketing that would better seep into public consciousness, using modern tools such as social media. With EBP Kents Work Experience team continuing to deliver rewarding placements, it was necessary to ensure that each student was as prepared as possible before entering into the workplace. With 11,000 students able to take advantage of such a unique experience, there was a cavalcade of Work Preparation Days that encouraged safe and efcient practice either by way of interactive workshops (Teamwork, Health & Safety, Communication, etc) or engaging presentation by EBP Kent ambassadors or members of the business community. The days were also extended to sixth forms, who were able to take advantage of employability sessions, offering useful information before they made the next step into higher education and employment. THE BUSINESS OF ENTERPRISE Kents premier young entrepreneurial project continues to go from strength to strength, serving up a wealth of innovative new business ideas and some of the best presentations the project has seen in years. With over 200 volunteers taking on the role of mentors or sitting on judging panels, it is little wonder that this year saw over 1000 students produce legitimate marketable ideas that left audiences open- mouthed in awe and surprise at what they were witnessing. Self- powered, sustainable turnstiles, fold away guitars, sterilisation units and intensive lab work, are just some of the results on display in an incredibly competitive Grand Final that pushed boundaries and epitomised Blue-Sky Thinking. The Grand Final taking place at the RBS Headquarters and the Runners-Up Final at the Manston site of global entity Cummins Power Generation, only heightened the awareness that there a prestige and employer value attached to the competition, where students are not only achieving the reward of having their work recognised, but also gaining genuine CV building blocks, that future employers and educational institutes will scrutinize and allocate offers on the basis of. Congratulations to this years nalists who have proven more once again, that the strength of the project lies in the partnership between education and business. HORIZONS & GLOBAL VILLAGE EBP Kent mainstay, Horizons, continued to deliver to whole schools a day of interactive industry based workshops, employability sessions that would support student journeys from Year 9 through to school leaving, and exhibition fairs that would offer a range of industry for students with aspirational aims and those looking for inspiration. Global Village, making its debut this year, offered a more global perspective, encouraging students to continue expanding their aspirations. Local MPs and industry leaders attended a question time session where they answered questions on the community, industry and a variety of other topics that the inquisitive young adults had concerns on. Over 40 volunteers from a variety of backgrounds took the time to support the day, allowing over 300 students to converse and interact with both national and global industry. CURRICULUM SEPTEMBER 2014 We now have a better understanding of what it is like to work in marketing and how you always have to be prepared for unexpected challenges. Student Comment I found this very helpful and now have lots of techniques to help me to get a job or university place. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. Student Comment It was really enjoyable and I found the workshops really interesting. Thank You. Student Comment ENERGISE YOUR FUTURE For the third year running, EBP Kent in partnership with Cummins Power Generation, worked with over 200 aspiring engineers on Energise Your Future. 20 ambassadors visited designated schools to build, analyse and research a series of power generating experiments that would better inform their own ideas for a future cleaner, more environmentally friendly source of energy. Each school selected a team that would represent them at the Cummins Power Generation Manston site, where they would present their ideas to a panel of expert judges. Prizes were handed out for best overall idea, but students also spent the day touring the shop oor and tackling a series of tricky activities. The project continues to inspire the next generation of engineering specialists and will continue to develop and grow to encompass even more students and schools into this hugely important process. CURRICULUM SEPTEMBER 2014 MAKE IT WORK Make it Work increased the number of schools it delivered in, bringing over 40 employers to set students industry-specic challenges, practice interviews and a host of employability workshops. For many students, this will have been their rst taste of working with an employer and so far the results have proven to be highly inspirational granting a unique opportunity for students to gain an insight into the intricate details that go into running a business. Students take a problem, research it and then deliver back their results at the end of the event. Interview sessions with employers experienced in the process not only provide invaluable experience, but also a condence boost that takes away a lot of the fear associated with the project. 300 students took part in Make it Work this year, on what is proving to be an incredibly detailed look at the world of work and the kind of people that make it work. It was great for the girls to experience real employers and the smaller challenges seemed to work well - lots of potential for skills to be developed such as team work. Teacher Comment Thanks for allowing the boys to have this great insight into working for a company like Cummins and the opportunity to work with the ambassadors and other students. Teacher Comment Presentations, organisation and also the actual activities all went really well, inspiring experience. Engineer comment The range of opportunities for Kent Employers to volunteer within a structured quality framework allows for signicant impact on our young people across the whole county. Education Business Links have evolved, gained depth, vocational signicance and through a complex network of partnerships is supporting an exponential growth of employability skills from as early as Key Stage 2 to the end of Key Stage 5. There are no quick xes or instant change, Education Business Link activity is a long term, altruistic process that enables the current workforce to empower the next one. Volunteers from every sector have given thousands of hours, shared expertise and inspiration almost every single day of the last academic year, every single hour is a colourful part of the mosaic of change and EBP Kent is overwhelmed by the generosity of Kent Employers. Our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to everyone. Anne McNulty, CEO EBP Kent