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What's been going on in February 2019

Hi there! We hope you had a great half-term, and are getting back into the swing of things.

This month, we're delighted to share a podcast from Nesta exploring the changing landscape of education and the crucial need to build essential skills - a theme which was picked up at their conference last week. I've also written about the best ways to prepare secondary school students for the world of work, and we're excited to announce a brand-new set of Listening videos on the Skills Builder Hub. Finally, we have updates on the rapidly-expanding partnership of employers and organisations.

We'll see you in a month for another update about the expanding Skills Builder Partnership!

Nesta's Education 2019 conference and podcast

Last week we were delighted to take part in Nesta's Education 2019 conference, where we shared the Skills Builder approach to essential skills education in light of the rapidly changing world of work. The week before, Tom Ravenscroft appeared on Nesta's Future Curious podcast with Joysy John (Director of Education at Nesta), where they discussed the importance of building essential skills and explored the best way to develop the curriculum.

Listen to the podcast here

Schools news

Truly preparing secondary school students for the world beyond the school gates is no easy task. The world of work continues to evolve, and automation and machine learning are set to shift roles across industries. So how do we make sure our young people leave school with the tools they need to succeed - whatever path they choose? Read the post on Teachwire to find out more about the best way to build essential skills.

Read Tom's post about teaching essential skills at secondary level

Skills Builder Hub news

We're delighted to be fast approaching 4,000 users on the Skills Builder Hub! New users now have access to a huge range of resources, including a brand new set of short video activities to teach listening skills for children and young people of all ages. As they require no preparation, these are perfect for slotting essential skills education into a tutor time slot. Click the button below to access the Skills Builder Hub for free.

Set up a free account on the Skills Builder Hub

Employers news

It's been great to extend our longstanding partnership with Brewin Dolphin Investment Management to involve their team in Exeter this term. Linking our schools in the South West to brilliant employers helps students put the essential skills they are developing at school into a real-world context. New partner Turner & Townsend hosted a first workplace visit in London for primary students from Hillingdon in February, and hot on their heels Turner & Townsend's team in Birmingham are getting involved in March. We were also delighted to partner with Mazars and ran our first visit to their Birmingham office. On this visit we were pleased to welcome Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Laura Thursfield who took time support the students on their challenge.

See all of the employer partners we work with

Organisations news

We're thrilled that our new partner Grofar have now embedded the Skills Builder Framework into their award-winning platform, which provides a comprehensive suite of tools to support careers development in schools. In addition, planning has already started to embed the essential skills across Deloitte's work experience programme, ASPIRE. We were also excited to see our partner Children's Universityrecognised at the NESTA conference this week as worthy recipients of the NESTA Future Ready Fund grant.

Download our free toolkit for skills-building organisations

The Next Chapter: Enabling Enterprise and the Skills Builder Partnership

In 2009, Enabling Enterprise was set up by a team of teachers to equip students with the essential skills they need to succeed. Over the last decade, we've grown from a single classroom to having over 100,000 children and young people completing a programme in the last year. We're excited about what comes next, and grateful for all the generous support to get us to this point. Click below to read the blog post about the next chapter in our journey.

Read Tom's blog post about our next chapter

L'Occitane Internship opportunity


Based in London? Looking for opportunities for Year 12 & 13 students to develop their essential skills? We have partnered with international retailer L'Occitane up to offer top-quality internships in Summer 2019. It is an absolutely brilliant opportunity for students to experience life and work at one of the Sunday Times' Top 100 employers in a 'grad scheme' style and see the eight essential skills in action. With the support of a mentor, students will spend one week in one of the brand's boutiques and another in their central London UK HQ. Previous interns have had opportunities to work in marketing, PR, finance, operations and HR. Click below to learn more and apply.

Read this year's Education and Skills Survey from the CBI

We're deeply grateful for all your support so far. Working together is by far the best way to effect real change - so please do continue to spread the word about the Skills Builder Partnership.