CURRICULUM

2014 A YEAR OF OPPORTUNITY!

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