Professor Prue HuddlestonCentre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick

P.J.Huddleston@warwick.ac.uk

Dr Anthony MannDirector of Policy and Research, Education and Employers Taskforce

Anthony.Mann@educationandemployers.org

Questions

• To what extent do high performing independent schools engage with employers to support pupil learning and progression?

• Why do they do it?

• How do they go about it?

Methodology• Focus on twenty high performing independent schools: Times 2009 league table

• Desk research

• Six in-depth structured interviews:

3 boys’ schools, 3 girls’ schools3 in London, 3 outside of London3 boarding, 3 day schoolsFieldwork, November 2010 to June 2011

• Literature review

• YouGov survey of 1,002 young adults (19-24) Fieldwork, February 2011

2009 Rank Name Town

1 Withington Girl’s School Manchester

2 Westminster School London

3 North London Collegiate School Edgware

4 St Paul’s School London

5 Magdalen College School Oxford

6 St Paul’s Girls’ School London

7 Perse Girls/Stephen Perse Sixth Form College Cambridge

8 Wycombe Abbey School High Wycombe

9 Royal Grammar School Guildford

10 City of London School for Girls London

11 The Lady Eleanor Holles School Hampton

12 Eton College Windsor

13 King’s College School, Wimbledon London

14 Sevenoaks School Sevenoaks

15 Guildford High School for Girls Guildford

16 Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls Elstree

17 Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boy’s School Borehamwood

18 Oxford High School GDST Oxford

19 Winchester College Winchester

20 South Hampstead High School GDST London

To what extent do they engage employers?

Institutions

Types of Employer Engagement1

Careers IAG2

Work Experience

3Business

Mentoring

4EnterpriseActivities

5Work-place

Visits

6Visiting

SpeakersWithington Girls School

Westminster School North London Collegiate School

St Pauls School Magdalen College School Oxford

St Pauls Girls School Stephen Perse Foundation/ Perse Girls

Wycombe Abbey School Royal Grammar School, Guilford City of London School for Girls

Lady Eleanor Holles School Eton College

Kings College School, Wimbledon Sevenoaks School

Guildford High School For Girls Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls

Haberdashers Aske’s Boys School Oxford High School GDST

Winchester College South Hempstead High School GDST

Desktop review of independent schools

• 100% undertake enterprise activities• 90 % undertake work experience• 85% undertake careers advice• 80% undertake have visiting speakers• 45% undertake workplace visits• 25% undertake business mentoring

How typical is this behaviour of all independent schools?

WorkExperience

14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form NYes 90.0% 86.1% 84.8% 649No 10.0% 13.9% 15.2% 82N 530 122 79 731

School type attended between 14-19 * Work experience participation rates

School type attended between 14-19 * Percentage receiving careers advice

Careers Advice

14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form NYes 43.8% 48.4% 57.0% 336No 56.2% 51.6% 43.0% 395N 530 122 79 731

EnterpriseCompetition

14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N with sixth form with sixth form with sixth formYes 27.2% 38.5% 37.5% 221No 72.8% 61.5% 62.5% 510N 529 122 80 731

School type attended between 14-19 * Enterprise competition participation rate

Careers Advice

14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form Never 51% 47% 39% 338Just once or twice 39% 39% 39% 268More than this 10% 14% 22% 83N 496 116 77 689

School type attended between 14-19 * Frequency of careers advice

School type attended 14–19 * Mentoring participation rate

Mentoring14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent NYes 16.3% 15.7% 15.0% 117No 83.7% 84.3% 85.0% 613N 529 121 80 730

School type attended between 14-16 * Number of employer engagement activities

14-16 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N0 31% 26% 31% 2601 41% 44% 26% 3462 16% 13% 23% 1383 6% 8% 9% 594 or more 6% 9% 12% 66N 552 204 113 869

Why they engage with employers?

• To help pupils get into university courses of choice?

“My view is that they ought to have had time with a GP and time at a hospital before they put in an application.” (Teacher, girls’ school, D).

• To help pupils decide on career goals and how to achieve them

“It’s much less to do with the world of work full stop, than a sense of this is a good thing to have on my particular CV of what I want to do.” (Teacher, boys’ school, B)

• To help pupils develop employability schools “You have a compelling mix of personal skills and academic qualifications and extra-curricular achievements that when you’re an employer you say, “this guy looks good”. (Teacher, boys’ school, A).

Why they engage with employers?

• To help pupils develop networks of value after leaving school

“It’s all part of a good education, isn’t it? It’s all part of equipping them to leave school in the best possible position.” (Teacher, girls’ school, E)

• To help stimulate a culture of expectation & aspiration

“As a master you can kind of see a lot of it going on around you, sort of handshakes ad smiles and you know…all sorts of exchanges going on that help that kid’s potential success, in addition to what we try to do at school.’ (Teacher, boys’ school, C)”

How do they engage with employers?

• Alumni networks

“It’s such a good network through the old boys’ association, and the parents, we have sent out a blanket request and people will say “yes”, I’m happy to help.’” (Teacher, boys’ school, B)

• Parental networks

“The girls can get in to do the places but it tends to be that they follow through the contact so it might be a parent contact… they follow it through themselves… and I would probably say it’s on the strength of the school that they get it.” (Teacher, girls’ school, E)

How do they engage with employers?• Governors’ networks

“Well there you go you see, this is the classic... one of our governors professor X is the... what’s the grandest thing you can be... not chair... senior...”

Interviewer 2 “Registrar?”

Interviewee “NHS foundation trust... now he came in and said, we can sort work experience out for your kids, that was never how it was presented... we had a meeting and wanted them to go in and do some work, and they do quite a lot of work and they produce presentations to the board to the CEO in the foyer of [large London hospital] all their photographs all their recommendations and they have to do that and they have to stand up and give a speech about it. Now that is putting them on the spot, it may be a bit uncomfortable, they have to do the work... but it’s going to resonate far more if they do that than if they shadowed... I want to produce more things like that.” (Teacher, boys’ school, A)

How do they engage with employers?• Through intermediaries

“...we have a personal advisor from ‘Connexions’ who comes in once a week, I’ve used ‘Connections’ if you like but I’ve used them as a consultancy service...” (Teacher, girls’ school, E)

• Pupil approaches

“I think also our girls are pretty good at taking…very astute at taking advantage of opportunities, when we took them down to the ‘Breaking the mould’ competition… one of our girls negotiated her own sort of media work experience with the person who shot our video...” (Teacher, girls’ school, D)

• Direct approaches from employers

“...they were always looking for very bright women most of these companies so they’re very keen to... In fact I’m always being approached by investment banks because they have various programmes... But I wish they would do something slightly more co-ordinated that I didn’t have to keep... They get in touch with you as if you had never heard of an investment bank... Well actually they’re the third investment bank this week!” (Teacher, girls’ school, E)

Work experience

- Strongly linked to HE admissions

- Often undertaken in the summer between lower and upper sixth, or after GCSEs.

- Self-sourced after career counselling

- Not always inspected for H & S

- Written references secured

“... The key thing... I think is ‘what have I learnt?’” (Head of Careers, girls’ school, D – reflecting on work experience)

Is it an extra-curricular activity?

“No, I think it’s part of the curriculum because if it were extra-curricular it would seem to be so discretionary and you’re in competition with everything else... I’ve got to find them and give them a rich experience… one which doesn’t undermine one activity by putting it in competition with another if we can do it.” (Teacher, girls’ school, D)

But rarely integrated into classroom teaching.

School type attended between age groups * Usefulness of Work Experience

14-19* deciding on a career getting a job getting in to HE NNon-selective 54% (16%) 27% (9%) 25% (6%) 441-470Grammar 59% (19%) 31% (10%) 28% (11%) 94-105Independent 81% (36%) 47% (15%) 42% (13%) 53-67

School type attended between 14-19 * Usefulness of Enterprise Project14-19* deciding on career getting job getting in to HE NNon-selective 37% (5%) 29% (5%) 33% (5%) 101-156Grammar 48% (6%) 36% (4%) 35% (5% ) 29-48Independent 46% (3%) 33% (7%) 57% (7%) 12-30

School type attended between 14-19 * Usefulness of Careers Advice

14-19* deciding on career getting job getting in to HE NNon-selective 59% (10%) 39% (7%) 37% (10%) 223-232Grammar 62% (12%) 38% (7%) 46% (7%) 55-58 Independent 81% (28%) 55% (13%) 37% (17%) 40-47

(Including a sixth form or college; percentages outside of brackets represent respondents who felt that their work experience helped them ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’; integers in brackets denote individuals who felt that their work experience helped them ‘a lot’)

Effective practice?• All students across the year group engage in the projects associated with their age:

Year 7 – Local community projects (helping out in schools)

Year 8 – Enterprise day run by Young Enterprise

Year 9 – Inspiring Futures fair trade enterprise activity, visiting speakers, careers fair

Year 10 – Enterprise day run by Young Enterprise, visiting speakers, careers fair

Year 11 – Work experience, visiting speakers

Year 11/12 – Work experience

Professor Prue HuddlestonCentre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick

P.J.Huddleston@warwick.ac.uk

Dr Anthony MannDirector of Policy and Research, Education and Employers Taskforce

Anthony.Mann@educationandemployers.org