AEIAG0063
Written evidence submitted by the Skills Builder Partnership
Skills Builder Partnership is a not-for-profit social enterprise, established in 2009 with a clear mission: to ensure that one day, everyone builds the essential skills to thrive. The Partnership includes 725 employers, education institutions and impact organisations. Partners include the CBI, CIPD, Gatsby Foundation, the Careers & Enterprise Company and Business in the Community. Last year we delivered 1.4 million high quality opportunities to boost essential skills.
As well as delivering training and working with employers and other partners, Skills Builder Partnership undertakes research. This consultation response draws from two recent pieces of research:
Skills Builder Partnership Essential Tracker (March 2022): This new Tracker takes a view of the whole UK population. More than 2,200 adults of all ages completed a full self-assessment against the Skills Builder Framework of the 8 essential skills in collaboration with YouGov. The result is the most complete picture we've ever had at a national level of who is building their essential skills, and what the impact of those skills are.
Better prepared: Essential skills and employment outcomes for young people: (February 2021) This report is built off a research study conducted with YouGov including more than 3,000 young people aged 16-24 years-old. Individuals completed a self-assessment against the Skills Builder Universal Framework, as well as sharing other outcomes data.
The link between essential skills and careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG)
Skills Builder Partnership’s focus is essential skills. We work on building eight essential skills with the same rigour as any other learning: teamwork; leadership; problem solving; creativity; listening; speaking; aiming high; and staying positive.
These essential skills are those highly transferable skills that support learning, working and wider life too. Good careers education, information, advice and guidance should be championing the development of essential skills as well as more traditional academic subjects. Essential skills go hand on hand with traditional academic subjects as they enable individuals to make sense of and apply their knowledge.
Better prepared: Essential skills and employment outcomes for young people found that young people who found their career ambition easier to pursue on average have reported higher skills scores compared to their peers who found it more challenging. Respondents who said they have no career ambition had the lowest skills scores. This difference is statistically significant at 5%.
Is the current system of careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) serving all young people?
With the importance of essential skills in mind we need to think about whether careers education, information, advice and guidance is promoting the development of essential skills to specific groups. Our research provides evidence that essential skill levels in those from disadvantaged backgrounds and these in alternative provision is lower than average which has a detrimental effect on individuals achieving their career ambitions.
Better prepared: Essential skills and employment outcomes for young people found that young people who found it difficult to pursue their career ambition, on average, have lower skills scores. Initial analysis also shows that they are mainly from non-White ethnic backgrounds (significant correlation at 5%) who are likely to have received free school meals (FSM) when they were at school (also significant corelation at 5%).
Individuals who attended an Alternative Provision setting had significantly lower essential skills scores than peers who attended any other educational setting.
Table 1 Crosstabulation- school type attended and skills score
The findings in the table above show that 55% of the respondents who attended selective schools or fee-paying independent schools scored equal or above average against the framework. 4% fewer peers from state schools scored equal or above average against the framework (51%). However, young people attending alternative provision schools with additional educational needs are far less likely to score at similar levels, with only 15% equal and above average.
Alternative provision settings would benefit from a greater emphasis on building essential skills to support their students as part of careers education, information, advice and guidance.
Skills Builder Partnership Essential Tracker (March 2022) found that the most disadvantaged individuals are least likely to have benefited from having opportunities at school to build the essential skills that lead to improved life outcomes. Using a proxy for advantage, those that had both (43%) or one parent (42.8%) attend university were much more likely to have had opportunities to build essential skills at school than those for whom neither parent attended university (36.3%).
As well as a ‘skills gap’, this paper shows there is in effect a ‘skills trap’. Disadvantage and a lack of early opportunity to build essential skills leads to a lack of value placed on them, limited opportunities in the workplace, lower essential skill levels, lower income and lower life satisfaction. Careers education, information, advice and guidance could be instrumental in breaking this cycle by illustrating the value employers place on essential skills and signposting opportunities for building these skills.
How could careers and skills guidance be better embedded in the curriculum across primary, secondary, further, higher and adult education, to ensure all learners are properly prepared for the world of work?
We recommend the integration of the Skills Builder Universal Framework into CEAIG at all stages of education. The Skills Builder Universal Framework breaks down some of the most commonly called-for skills and behaviours into teachable and assessable chunks. The Framework has been developed over five years by a wide group of organisations including the CIPD, CBI, Gatsby Foundation, Careers and Enterprise Company, Business in the Community and the Skills Builder Partnership. It is referenced in the Department for Education’s ‘Careers guidance and access for education and training providers- Statutory guidance’. The Statutory guidance recommends that ‘In schools, each subject should support students to identify the essential skills they develop and to identify pathways to future careers… the Skills Builder Universal Framework shows how to build essential skills into the school or college curriculum’.
The Skills Builder Universal Framework is already backed by the Careers & Enterprise Company as the model to use in secondary schools and colleges to build these skills, as well as being recommended by the DFE to support T-Level delivery. It is also recommended by IFATE as a tool for writing apprenticeship standards. Widening of use of the Universal Framework to include all areas of, primary, further, higher and adult education would ensure comparable assessment and a consistent language and approach through education into future careers.
Below are three case studies of educational establishments that have won a Skills Builder Award Gold standard and exemplify best practice embedded careers and skills guidance in the curriculum.
Primary school
Manor Primary School is located in Uckfield, East Sussex. The school has identified developing children's resilience and confidence, enabling them to be independent learners, able to aim high and achieve well as key priorities. The introduction of the Skills Builder programme (including the Skills Builder Universal Framework) alongside career-related learning has provided them with the tools and context to broaden their horizons and raise aspirations. Pupils now have a language for learning which is consistent across the whole school and they have been provided with opportunities to discuss, share and practise the essential skills throughout the school day. Close links with careers-related teaching have allowed the children to see value in the skills they are learning, not just in the present, but throughout their lives. This has supported them in holding high aspirations for themselves, in particular, through the skills of 'Aiming High' and 'Leadership'.
When it first launched the programme and career-related learning created a real buzz across the school with children talking about the skills, different jobs available to them and careers of the future. Many children went home and quizzed their parents/carers about their occupations and then came into school to share with the class and members of the teaching team were happy to share their own journeys in whole-school assemblies. The language of the eight essential skills is now being used and referred to consistently across the whole school and the children are able to articulate the importance of each skill, how they have improved and what has helped them. Pupils are very clear about how the skills are needed both now and, in their future, to support them in maximising their choices in life. Teachers feel that the online resources support them in providing opportunities for practising the skills without increasing workload and the children enjoy the online activities which were also made available during lockdown through the home learning hub.
Development of the essential skills has been strategically planned, regular training has been provided and opportunities to share ideas and best practice have been provided throughout the academic year. All resources including posters for each of the individual skills were provided to all year groups, laminated and ready to be used and referred to within the school day. Every classroom has a Skills Builder board and the essential skill/s being focused on are clearly displayed. A whole-school display board is used and referred to regularly in assemblies and individual certificates are displayed as well as being sent home. The programme has been introduced to Governors and impact has been monitored as the year has progressed. Regular assemblies have taken place with clear focus on a skill at a time. Regular teacher voice and pupil voice questionnaires are taking place across the school to monitor the effectiveness of the programme and ensure consistency across the key stages.
Each year group across the phases has introduced all the skills, with a focus on the key skills which is most needed for the particular cohort. As the children move through the school, the language will become more embedded and consistent, moving with them as they progress through the school. Parents have been introduced to the Skills Builder programme and career-related and some parents have presented their own careers and how the essential skills support them in their occupations.
The Skills Builder Hub has enabled teachers to record the progress of their students throughout the year. This is updated three times a year to show how much progress has been made throughout their time in the year group. This has also formed part of a discussion in pupil progress meetings and transition meetings. A teacher voice and pupil voice took place at the beginning of June to ascertain the impact the programme had had and to begin to show a correlation between progress of the skills and academic progress/attainment.
Secondary School
Shoreham Academy is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, England which opened in September 2009
The school has recently created a role entirely dedicated to careers, destinations and work experience. Skills Builder resources are used to ensure continuity in the schools’ careers programme throughout students’ 7-year journey. Skills Builder has been embedded into the mentor programme for Key Stage 3 and in the Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE) and curriculum resources.
Skills Builder has provided a clear, measurable and meaningful context to careers learning. The Skills Builder Framework, Skills Builder Hub and resources available online supports staff. Students enjoy the clarity and iconography that comes with the eight essential skills. They can clearly recognise when they are being asked to talk about or develop a skill.
Skills Builder is used throughout the whole school. As early as transition (primary feeder schools) the school embed Skills Builder with a bespoke Skills Builder Challenge Day. Key Stage 3 Skills Builder focus is through mentor time, as well as the games and activities provided during Careers Week. In Key Stage 4 students have a bespoke mentor 'pathways' programme which uses the 8 essential skills to help students prepare for post 16 decisions. Skills Builder is also the framework for sixth form transition day for Year 11.
Personalised support is provided to students either through baseline skill assessments completed by tutors or 1 to 1 mentor meetings about the essential skills and progression.
When working with employers, they are asked to badge the top 3 skills they use each day in their work. This was done with 26 employability week employers and with 32 work experience industry mentors. There is also a YouTube channel where employer encounter videos are hosted, this includes employers speaking of their essential skills and how they are used in the workplace.
Further and Higher Education
Newcastle College is a large further education and higher education college in Newcastle upon Tyne, with over 45,000 students enrolled on a variety of full time, part time, and distance learning.
The college works with Skills Builder and recently won our Gold award for their work in supporting the planning, development and implementation of essential skills as part of the college's curriculum footprint over two academic years since 2019.
The college used the initial eight essential skills to benchmark and create its own set of Knowledge, Skills and behaviours (KSB) appropriate to the development needs of our students. This intention was to ensure that students were fully aware of the importance of developing new skills, personal characteristics and behaviour traits associated with their intended career destinations.
Embedding the eight essential skills against the college’s skills framework has allowed the college to self-assess itself on what it delivers and identify where improvements still need to be made. This has not been without its challenges over the last academic year where students have been taught remotely. The impact on this has been a reliance on student independent learning and subsequently this has led to the wider understanding of why essential skills are important.
Every student as part of tutorial engagement, receives a reflective log book promoting the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours (KSB) required to achieve well. The eight essential skills were used to formulate the KSB framework. The booklet is used to review and evaluate progress by the student and personal tutor. Promotion and application of skills takes place at every stage of the career’s guidance journey whether during prior-enrolment in schools, on programme or at exit to inform progression.
Students are proactively encouraged to demonstrate and apply their understanding of essential skills through a broad range of contextualised vocational projects, work experiences and interactions and engagement with employers as part of the overall curriculum offer.
Employer engagement and exposure to the world of work is used so students are aware of what is required in their chosen vocation. Virtual work experiences allow students to engage with employers online, providing opportunities for students to communicate directly with employers, demonstrating for example, listening and speaking skills, creativity and problem solving. This enables student groups from different curriculum areas to work together to resolve business challenges.
Do the proposals for CEIAG in the Government’s Skills for Jobs White Paper effectively address current challenges in the CEIAG system?
The Skills for Jobs white paper aspires to make sure people can access training and learning flexibly throughout their lives and are well-informed about what is on offer through great careers support.
We have previously set out how essential skills and more traditional subjects go hand-in-hand and this joint focus should be reflected in the approach the Government is proposing in the Skills for Jobs white paper. The language used in careers education, information, advice and guidance needs to be consistent throughout education and into the world of work with essential skills, which are so important for future careers developed and measured in the same way as traditional subjects.
Tangibly this could be achieved in the immediate term with the inclusion of essential skills in the curriculum content and careers support in the short courses and skills bootcamps being offered as part of the Skills for Life Guarantee. Beyond this, essential skills should be the strand that can run through education at all ages, stages and abilities. Using the Skills Builder Universal Framework as a tool for building essential skills into the school or college curriculum and continuing its use allows this to be tracked and measured by individuals helping them understand their strengths and interests and so towards their preferred career.
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March 2022