London Skills Team Brief May 2014/issue no. 2 Introductory Remarks The past couple of months have been busy in the skills competitions and shows scene in London. Four Skills Show Experience events have taken place at the College of North West London, West Thames College, Barking and Dagenham College and South Thames College. Around 7,000 young Londoners attended the events. The last event in London will take place at Hackney Community College on 3 July. We hope to see even more young people ‘Having a Go’ at the range of skills exhibited there. At the same time, registrations for this year’s WorldSkills UK competitions have now closed. We are very pleased that there were over 370 registrations from London colleges and other providers. Some of the most popular skills areas included popular music, mechanical engineering and beauty therapy. More information on the registrations and regional heats will follow in the next issue of the London Skills Team Brief. Lastly, the past months have also seen important changes happen in the national skills competitions and shows landscape with the creation of a new umbrella organisation called ‘Find a Future’, which will bring together WorldSkills UK, The Skills Show and The Skills Show Experience. We look forward to continuing our existing good cooperation with the different parts of Find a Future. Cathy Walsh, AoC London Region Co-Chair; AoC London Regional World Skills Champion 2013-2014 and Principal, Barking and Dagenham College New Organisation to Lead on Skills and Careers Experience Nationally From 1 April 2014, UK’s leading experiential careers education events and skills competitions will be brought together in a single organisational structure to be known as ‘Find a Future’. The new organisation will encompass not only the national programme of WorldSkills UK Skills Competitions but also The Skills Show, the nation’s leading annual skills and careers event, and The Skills Show Experience, a nationwide programme of more than 220 events which inspire young people to consider what they are good at and become excited about the world of work. “Find a Future is the perfect opportunity for us to integrate three highly successful products and enhance their offering to our end users – young people – whilst adding real value to individual’s lives and the future economic prosperity of our nation,” explains Ross Maloney, Chief Executive of Find a Future. “The products have many synergies and shared ambitions, and by bringing them together, we are confident that we can achieve greater impact and reinforce the importance of valuing and celebrating further education, skills and apprenticeships.” From 1 April, responsibility for WorldSkills UK Skills Competitions has been transferred by the Skills Funding Agency to Find a Future. And, as Mr Maloney explains, this brings immediate benefits and a common purpose to the organisation: “WorldSkills UK Skills Competitions drive excellence in both industry and education, and help to improve the quality of teaching and learning and standards across a broad range of industry sectors. Including them in the portfolio of Find a Future provides a great opportunity to drive increased participation in skills competitions and encourage more young people to excel in their chosen skill on a local, regional, national and international stage. As performance standards rise, industry will benefit, ensuring that the UK remains the leader in skills across the world. “By combining our resources, Find a Future will ensure that employers have direct access to the diversity of talent which they need, to enable their businesses to flourish and our nation to prosper.” 2 The Skills Show Experience at the College of North West London The first Skills Show Experience event in London in 2014 took place at the College of North West London on 26 March. Around 1,000 visitors attended the event. The college has been very successful in the past years at WorldSkills UK, and accordingly competitions played a central role at the event. These included for instance web design, forensic science, brickwork, vehicle mechanics and carpentry. Visitors were able to take part in a range of Have a Gos including, among others, plastering, painting and robotics. Uxbridge College organised a Have a Go on games development and Harrow College on hair and beauty. Visitors were also able to ‘fish a duck’ at the National Careers Service stand and receive independent careers advice from them. Employers, including Buck & Hickman, CITB, Facom, GEA Heat Exchangers, the London Community Neighbourhood Cooperative and others, were also present on the day. Aspire – the West London Skills Show Experience Following the first event at the College of North West London, the second Skills Show Experience event took place at West Thames College on 4 April. Around 1,800 visitors attended the event. 3 The event focused on jobs for young people and included careers advice on CVs and interview technics provided by the National Careers Service, as well as on-site over 800 interviews with Premier Inn, Tesco, Pet Plan Insurance, London Heathrow and other companies. Furthermore, tens of other employers were present at the event’s jobs fair. Have a Go activities in building a bike, room service, DJ skills, forklift truck driving, digital sculpture and many other sectors, offered visitors opportunities to try out new skills. Visitors were able to create a unique badge or try to beat a rowing champion on Richmond upon Thames College’s stand. The Skills Show Experience @BDC The Skills Show Experience at Barking and Dagenham College took place on 30 April. Over 2,000 visitors attended the event. Havering College of FE and HE, Tower Hamlets College, Redbridge College and Waltham Forest College together with the host college and employers offered over 70 Have a Go activities for young people, ranging from hair and beauty to a pit stop challenge and pimping your PC. Over 30 career spotlight sessions offered visitors insights into the world of work. These included, among others, presentations from the Construction Industry Training 4 Board, e-skills, Siemens and Sanctuary Search. National Careers Service provided independent careers advice at the event. The event also included the regional heats of three major skills competitions: SkillBuild – a multi-trade skills competitions for construction skills, SkillElectric – an electric installation skills competition and SkillPlumb – a plumbing skills competition. The Skills Show Experience at South Thames College The Skills Show Experience at South Thames College took place on 8 May. Over 2,000 visitors attended the event. Have a Go activities played a central role at the event, with opportunities to try out floristry, head and hand massage, motorbike maintenance and building a robot among others. In addition to the host college, these activities were organised by Bromley College of FE and HE, Capel Manor College, Carshalton College, Kingston College, John Ruskin College, Lambeth College and LeSoCo. Employers, such as McDonals, KPMG and Barclays were also involved in the event. National Careers Service offered independence careers advice at the event and organised a number of sessions for visitors, with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The event also hosted the WorldSkills UK regional heat for games development. 5 Skills London 2014 Update After another successful event in November 2013 attracting over 30,000 visitors, the Skills London team are busy planning this year's event. The 2014 event takes place on Friday 21 & Saturday 22 November at ExCeL. The planning team includes the Greater London Authority, the National Apprenticeship Service, National Careers Service, London First and Prospects who meet monthly to ensure the event is focused on delivering the best visitor experience and widest range of visitors for participating organisations. Skills London is supported by an exhibitor focus group chaired by Terry Morgan of Crossrail and, new for 2014, the schools focus group. The focus groups have enabled the organisers to get real feedback from both exhibitors and visitors helping them to understand the impact attending Skills London has on everyone involved. Exhibitors and schools are continuing to support the growth of Skills London and are consulted on content, marketing and outcomes. This year's event will see an even wider selection of inspiring, interactive, educational skills presentations, performances and Get Skilled activity stands. The clear aim of these is to inspire students and help them to understand the skills required by employers within the capital. New additional zones have been planned in to highlight employment growth areas within the capital. Skills London, the capitals biggest jobs and careers event is a one stop shop for young people, teachers, careers professionals and parents to learn, be inspired and engage with a vast range of educators and employers from across London. For further details please contact Jen Delderfield (Project Manager) at Prospects on 0208 315 1010 or Mark Hilton at London First on 020 7665 1521. Please click here to download further details on ways to get involved in this year’s event. 6 Continuing Professional Development on Skills Competitions The Association of Colleges (AoC) has secured funding from the Education and Training Foundation to develop and deliver a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme on skills competitions in 2014. The aim of the programme is to increase the number of providers engaged in skills competitions; increase excellence in vocational teaching and learning; enhance occupational expertise; and support a more diverse competitor base. The CPD programme will build on existing resources pooled together and have a core offer of vocational masterclass days and half days. The nationally developed programme will be delivered regionally in two waves, using a tailored programme for each region: from April 2014 to July 2014 and from September 2014 to November 2014. AoC London Region is currently working on developing the regional programme and will provide a separate update for member colleges and other partners shortly.