As part of the restructure Jayne Spink was promoted to the full time role of Work Experience & Internships Officer and a few weeks later we filled two other vacancies with Rachel McAdam and Ranee Sidhu joining the team.  Read on to find our more about them…..

Rachel McAdam – Fundraising Manager

Rachel joins Spark! from the private sector having worked in international sales for companies such as Nielson’s Book Data and Thomson Reuter’s MicroPatent.  Rachel’s clients were based in the US, mainland Europe, Australasia, and Southern Africa, however her key clients were in the UK and Germany (Rachel is proficient in German).

Rachel has a strong affinity with the education sector (her nearest relatives are all teachers) and she broke the mould when entering the world of commerce.  However, more recently she has been very actively involved in her young daughters’ schools (being a member of the PTA, arranging fund-raising events and running the school choir!).

Ranee Sidhu – Interim Apprenticeships Co-ordinator (p/t through to Sept 2013)

Ranee worked for Ealing Council in education for 26 years.  She has worked on several projects i.e. TVEI Project, Aimhigher, 14-19 Projects and was involved in setting up the new eDEC (Ealing Diploma & Enterprise Centre).  This project helped young people age 14-16 to develop vocational skills and a pathway from education to employment.   Ranee was in the frontline of supporting young Customer Services Apprentices in Ealing.   Her other work with young people has included assisting in Mock Interviews, Workshops and Enterprise challenges.

Ranee works the rest of the week as a Deputy Manager for EBSI (Education Business Services International) – our partner EBP in Ealing – liaising with businesses and schools/colleges.  She organises and delivers workshops/seminars in schools, oversees the ESF Pre-apprenticeship programme as well as monitoring EBSI’s budgets.

Jayne Spink  – Work Experience & Internships Officer

Also as part of the restructure, Jayne Spink, has been promoted to the full-time post of Work Experience & Internships Officer and will be leading on service delivery in this area, reporting to Andrew Dakers.  Jayne lives locally and worked for Feltham City Learning Centre before joining Spark! two years ago.   With teenage children herself, she is extremely committed to the continued challenge of seeking out host employers for high quality work placements experiences, as well as Industry Insight Days.

We warmly welcome both Rachel and Ranee – congratulate Jayne on her promotion – and look forward to all their contribution to the Spark! family.

A number of activities in our upcoming events programme require business volunteers to assist in the delivery of a variety of workshops and activities. As usual, whether your support is on an ad-hoc or regular basis, we would like to hear from you!

SPARK! STEM DAY – 20 March 2013 at Green School | 17 July 2013 at Hounslow Manor School

Spark! is looking for volunteers with a science, technology, engineering or Maths background, to deliver workshops helping students place their learning within the context of the workplace. We aim to inspire and encourage young people to explore the diverse opportunities linked to science. GSK is an ideal company to support this day!

CAREERS DAY / SPEED NETWORKING – 21 March 2013 at Heston School | 18 July 2013

Can you deliver a mini workshop about your industry or organisation at a local school? The school will match small groups of students that are interested in your area of work. A talk on career opportunities followed by a short practical activity would be ideal, or come along to just be involved in a speed networking session – it is fun, fast and effective!

CAREERS SPEED NETWORKING – 8 May 2013 at Green School for Girls

Speed Networking is a new, high energy and fun way of introducing young people to a range of careers in a short amount of time.  Spend up to 10 minutes with each group of students telling them about your company, role and what you do.  This allows students to be better informed of the job market and build their confidence.

MOCK INTERVIEWS –19 June 2013 at Green School for Girls | 16 July 2013 at St Mark’s School

Give students the opportunity to find out what the expectations of employers are in an interview scenario with a business volunteer.  Help young people discover what is involved in preparing for the future!

For more information or to register your interest call Ruby Mir on 020 8047 3350 or email ruby.mir@sparklondon.org

Employers from the local area and beyond are taking part and many find these days much easier to coordinate, as it takes just a few hours out of one day rather than a whole week.

A group of 10-15 students would take part in the visit to your place of work which would usually be from 10am-2pm.  During the day, with Spark’s support and assistance in preparing if needed, host employers deliver a programme to include a general introduction to the company, question and answer sessions with employees and  a couple of work based activities or projects to give the students a flavour of your industry and job roles.

Jayne Spink, Spark’s Work Experience & Internships Officer said:

“It would be fantastic if additional employers signed up to be involved in this exciting programme.  I know that students would benefit from the opportunity to see a full range of careers– and it is more important than ever in the current economic climate that we give local students a head start in kick starting their careers.

“The next Industry Insight Days – for which a number of local companies have already signed up – are The Green School on 23rd & 24th April 2013 and Feltham Community College on 30th April & 2nd May 2013.  If you are interested in taking part please could you email me as soon as possible so that we can arrange a time to meet.”

To contact Jayne and get involved, call 020 8560 5298 or 07826 026796. Alternatively, e-mail jayne.spink@sparklondon.org

The Government is keen to introduce a new traineeships programme which would support young people, aged 16 to 24, to develop the skills they need to impress potential employers and to secure and succeed in employment, including Apprenticeships.

Published in January, a discussion paper from the Department for Education entitled Traineeships: Supporting young people to develop the skills for Apprenticeships and other sustained jobs has set out a number of ideas for the introduction of traineeships from September 2013.

Prefacing the paper, Matthew Hancock MP, Minister for skills, said:

“Apprenticeships are at the heart of our drive to equip people with the skills that employers need. They are rightly popular both with businesses and with young people. But when I speak to employers, they consistently tell me that they are concerned that young people often lack the right skills and attitudes when they apply for an Apprenticeship or other jobs.

Many providers already offer excellent activities that aim to do just this. I want to build on their experiences to develop a successful new Traineeships programme in England.

This document is not a formal consultation but rather a starting point for discussion. It sets out our aspirations for Traineeships.”

Read the paper (PDF format)   To comment on the paper or contribute your experience to the ideas, e-mail Traineeships.Discussion@education.gsi.gov.uk

The timing of this award is very appropriate as it prefaces the start of National Apprenticeship Week which takes place from 11-15 March 2013.

Watermans was part of the Young Apprentice Producer Scheme nicknamed The Culture Squad. It was sponsored by the Mayor of London and Arts Council, London to use the experience of creating the huge 2012 programme of outdoor events all across London to create a legacy of young producers trained in the skills needed to produce outdoor events in the future.

At the beginning of 2012, the scheme embedded apprentice producers in six different arts organisations across London. While studying and learning their craft, they helped to deliver SHOWTIME, the outdoor arts programme in London that helped to bring the city to life during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Waterman’s own Apprentice Producer also helped to deliver the wider programme in Hounslow that included Big Dance events, Outdoor Cinema and Owl and the Pussycat outdoor opera, part of Hidden London on Brentford Lock.

This was the first time that Watermans had taken on an apprentice. Every effort was made to integrate the role into Watermans regular activities. The apprentice was introduced to all aspects of planning and producing events, including technical considerations, marketing and financial control. Watermans apprentice was Jess Warren.

Jan Lennox, Watermans, said:

“We were delighted in the transformation we witnessed both in Jess Warren’s capabilities as an outdoor events producer and in her personal confidence and abilities. In a relatively short time she became a real asset to our organisation. In the light of the success of this scheme we are very keen to continue to help train apprentices in the future.

“Watermans is very grateful to The Mayor of London and Arts Council, London for their support of this scheme which has already had demonstrable benefits for those involved. As a result of being part of the consortium that won a contract to provide a programme of outdoor activities that will tour to different locations in London from Arts Council, London, Watermans will be hosting a full-time post for an Outdoor Arts Producer. This post will last for the three year duration of the contract and has been filled by one of the participants in last year’s Young Apprenticeship Scheme.”

Andrew Dakers, Director, Spark! added:

“We work closely with Watermans as long term supporters of our Work Experience and Industry Insights Day programme.  We are delighted that they have been recognised in this way for their wider committment to helping kick start careers in the arts.”

The event offers the opportunity to:

• Meet and see Hounslow apprentices in action
• Learn about the benefits of employing an apprentice
• Network with other local businesses and training providers

In speaking about the benefits of taking on an apprentice, Julia Quilliam BEM– Quilliam Property Services, Brentford said:

“Our apprentice has brought real enthusiasm and a fresh approach which has had a really positive impact on the rest of the workforce.  In these challenging economic times the government grant available for employers who take on their first apprentice has also been welcome.  It has been a real delight  to employ such a talented young person from the local community.”

The event will take place at Lampton Park Conference Centre, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow TW3 4HY.

To attend, please RSVP to nina.johal@hounslow.gov.uk or call 0208 583 5785 as soon as possible as places are limited.

To celebrate fifty years of the London Borough of Hounslow and develop local talent in the creative industries, Spark! in partnership with the local authority, Picnic Films, Sky Skills Studios and West Thames College are launching The Young Filmmakers Competition to challenge the creativity of teams of KS4 and KS5 students from schools and colleges around the borough.  The short films will recognise the contribution of five Hounslow charities and small businesses.

The deadline for booking your team into the Sky Skills Studios is Friday 1 March, 5pm.  The deadline for entering your competition team is Wednesday 13 March, 5pm.

Read more and download the briefing pack…

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) provided additional funding in the academic year 2011-2012 to enable providers (colleges and third sector organisations) to offer NEET’s flexible vocationally-oriented programmes, personalised learning and individual intensive support with an emphasis on developing employability skills.

BIS commissioned the NFER to carry out research to establish how well providers were able to prepare learners for further learning, Apprenticeships and other work, and to highlight what further actions they might need to take to secure such outcomes in the future. Undertaken in 2012, the research comprised consultations with seven stakeholders and fieldwork visits to 20 providers where interviews were conducted with a total of 70 strategic, operational and support staff and with a total of 85 learners participating in the courses.

Some key findings detailed in the report included:

• The provision was widely reported, by provider staff and learners, to have had a positive impact on learner confidence, aspirations, motivation to progress into employment and skills development. Approximately one third of respondents to a follow-up survey reported that they had progressed to employment, Apprenticeships, further education or voluntary positions.
• Referrals and word of mouth are effective approaches to reaching and recruiting young adults Social media is becoming more frequently used for recruitment.
• The young adults participating in the training particularly valued the one-to-one support, direction and guidance provided by tutors.

Read the report in full

Researched by David Ryde, Spark! Associate Careers Advisor

The Committee also expressed concerns over confusion regarding the Department for Education’s research budget and criticised the move to make Level 2 of the Engineering Diploma equivalent to one GCSE, rather than several. The Committee has estimated that the UK economy will need to train around 830,000 Science and Engineering Technology professionals by 2020.

Read the report in full

Researched by David Ryde, Spark! Associate Careers Advisor

This identification of a distinctive group of aggrieved young men emerged from the Youth Matters survey, carried out for the O2 telecommunications company, and analysed by Durham University’s Prof Chapman, who has researched young people and social mobility.  “These people feel trapped,” says Prof Chapman.

These are young men, aged between 16 and 24, who appear to be particularly frustrated and unhopeful about their chances of good jobs or any upward mobility.

“These are neither the most deprived, who get quite a lot of attention, nor are they affluent enough to be on a conveyor belt to university,” says Prof Chapman, who has examined the views of 1,500 young people.

“These are a group of young people who are caught between these positions,” he says.

These youngsters are aware of the advantages of their better-off middle class counterparts, he suggests, but have diminishing expectations of gaining them for themselves.  And it is particularly the young men rather than young women who have the bleakest expectations.

“They have skills and ambitions – but they have a fatalistic sense that there are barriers that make it pointless to try in the first place,” says Prof Chapman.

Only 30% of these young men ever expect to own their own home in their lifetime – compared with 39% among their counterparts in poorer families.

Even at this early stage in their working lives, almost a quarter of these young men expect never to have a fulfilling job – a much more negative outlook than their female counterparts.

Almost a third of these young men say they “feel unhappy” when they think about their future – much more than women.

Prof Chapman describes these youngsters as coming from “respectable” families with “strong aspirations” – but now facing increasingly insecure job prospects.

These youngsters face the loss of jobs for skilled and semi-skilled industrial workers and an increase in temporary, service-sector jobs.

If these youngsters also have poor qualifications, it makes it even more difficult for them – facing the downward pressure from expanding numbers of graduates, who will occupy more sought-after jobs.

Prof Chapman says that these disaffected youngsters are from the type of families of skilled workers who might have had more optimistic expectations in the 1970s and 1980s.  But he says that many such families, outside the fringes of the middle classes, now face a more fragile economic future.

“They’re not on the bread line, but they’re vulnerable to misfortune. If the car goes or interest rates go up, they have little to protect them.”

The Youth Matters survey tracks young people’s opinions and attitudes.   While it revealed this group of disgruntled young men, the bigger picture showed a more optimistic view of social mobility.  More than half expected to earn more than their parents.

Among those who were optimistic, a significant factor was the perceived opportunity created by digital start-ups. Almost three-quarters identified the internet as helping to create more chances for their careers.

Source: Sean Coughlan, BBC News, 5 February 2013

Researched by David Ryde, Spark! Associate Careers Advisor