Engaging Young People in Learning (Post 16)

Aim: Atargeted approach to engage Young People (YP) in accredited learning whether they enter full-time employment (without accredited learning), self-employment or voluntary work with no training.

Current statistics indicate that there are 1493 YP in employment without accredited training & 69 in employment with no training within the2010/11 cohorts.

OWOT – Opportunity without training which includes self-employment & voluntary options.

●A conversion rate of 100% of all YP that are identified to be in a job, self-employment or volunteering without accredited or no training to a job with accredited training.

●Anincrease in the number of employers taking on an Apprentice in line with ECC policy and targets.

● Promote and engage support from stakeholders towardsRaising the Participation Age (RPA).

Key Actions

Employability & Skills Unit Actions

  1. Gather information from the Intended Destination Survey, Employability & Skills Tracking & Participation Team, and data analyst colleagues to identify cohort numbers.
  2. Reinforce the message to YP post 16 to ensure their awareness of OWOT and the availability of appropriate options.
  3. To work closely with the ECC Participation Consultants (PC) to ensure PC’s identify YP in schools who may not achieve GCSE grades A – C.
  4. Identify & focus upon those YP engaged in part-time opportunities supporting the young person into a full-time opportunity with accredited training.
  5. Advocate on behalf of young people engaging withlocal employers and volunteering agencies to identify and support those in opportunities without accredited training.
  6. Working collaboratively with the ECC Raising Participation (RPA) team to engage directly with YP, parents and schools.
  7. Work in partnership with internal and external agencies engaging with employers e.g. Invest in Essex, JCP, Business Forums and District Councilsto raise awareness and promote RPA; with the aim of creating and maintaining a database of employers willing to facilitate accredited training for future employment opportunities.
  8. Utilise in-house staffing resources to compile and supply information to employers, voluntary agencies and young people.
  9. Undertake a marketing campaign to ensure full awareness of RPA and how and where to seek further learning opportunities. To work with learning providers,including Consortia leads and ACL, to ensure appropriate learning provision is implemented to meet the needs of young people and employers.
  10. Discuss and agree protocols with volunteering agencies working with YP within the RPA cohort.

Key Outcomes

●Conversion of all identified YPin an opportunity without accredited training (OWOT) to YP in accredited learning.

●The Employability & Skills unit will,post 31st August engage with all employers and volunteering agencies identifiedas employing Young People in a job without accredited training.

● Non participation & NEET churn prevention (young people re-registering as not participating in learning).

● Increased participation.

●Increase in positive progression into sustainable employment with accredited training.

● The re-engagement of young peoplewho lose contact with Essex County Council.

●The accurate recording of occupational codes on profile to ensure a targeted approach to SME engagement.

Potential Cohort

The information below shows the estimated size of the cohort. This is split into those in employment with locally recognised training and employment with no training based on the last two complete cohort years. Figures shows a large number of young people enter employment with locally recognised training, a factor when considering the potential to convert these jobs in to a recognised outcome ie apprenticeships, as well asfunding implications.

Destination / Centre / 17 / 18 / Grand Total
Employment with locally recognised training / Basildon / 65 / 173 / 238
Braintree / 27 / 144 / 171
Brentwood / 16 / 55 / 71
Castlepoint / 25 / 107 / 132
Chelmsford / 23 / 123 / 146
Colchester / 27 / 115 / 142
Epping / 20 / 79 / 99
Harlow / 13 / 66 / 79
Maldon / 22 / 71 / 93
Rochford / 19 / 83 / 102
Tendring / 37 / 125 / 162
Uttlesford / 18 / 40 / 58
Employment with locally recognised training Total / 312 / 1181 / 1493
Employment with no training / Basildon / 2 / 2 / 4
Braintree / 2 / 3 / 5
Brentwood / 3 / 3
Castlepoint / 1 / 3 / 4
Chelmsford / 9 / 9 / 18
Colchester / 2 / 4 / 6
Epping / 2 / 2 / 4
Harlow / 8 / 8
Maldon / 2 / 3 / 5
Rochford / 1 / 1
Tendring / 3 / 4 / 7
Uttlesford / 3 / 1 / 4
Employment with no training Total / 30 / 39 / 69
Grand Total / 342 / 1220 / 1562

Note: the data above is also available by ward within each District

Note: within the total of 1562, there are 576 recorded as ‘other elementary’ or no information recorded.

Themost prevalent occupations are Sales, Clerical & Secretarial, Catering, and Construction.

Activities/strategies

  1. Ensuring that the PC’s collect andaccurately record Activity Survey information which will be vital in enabling the ESU to target specific sectors.
  2. Considering offering employers financial support using a similar model to the Skills for Economic Growth scheme.
  3. Influencing & developing learning provision to meet employer needs based upon local Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) and Industrial Occupational Knowledge (IOK)
  4. Linkingwith Community Budget pilots.
  5. Working with Industry Intelligence and other internal ECC teams to identify sector growth areas.
  6. Delivering employer consultation activities through existing forum to inform economic development.
  7. Utilising information obtained via tracking young people to enable ESU to focus advocacy towards specific employers.
  8. Utilising CEIAG function and ACHIEVE identification system within schools to identify YP intending/at risk of entering the labour market without accredited training at the end of Year 11.
  9. Early intervention activities informed by the intended destination survey willsupport young people and theirfamilies at risk of non-participation post 16, in addition ESU will focus support towards young people in attendance at pupil referral units, who have been on extended work placements as part of Year 11 programmes.
  10. Employability & Skills Intervention Advisers to identify & advocateon behalf of YP intent on entering OWOT.
  11. Employability& Skills Intervention Advisers placement targets to incorporate conversation to accredited learning to reflect OWOT component of RPA.
  12. Establishing Service Level Agreements to allow the sharing of data between agencies thereby enabling ECC to identifyYP who failApprenticeship testing and are likely to move into OWOT.
  13. Data Analysts to compile and supply ESU with monthly lists of participation leavers to enable the Intervention team to make contact and offer support to re-engage in participation if the young person has moved into OWOT.
  14. Utilising learner bulletins to promote appropriate employment opportunities.
  15. Matching YP to employers with accredited training programmes.

The strategy will require a targeted marketing approach to the engagement of young people, employers, voluntary agencies, parents & schools which will include:

●LMI and Profilebeing utilised to identifysectors and geographical areas where employers recruit YP and do not offer accredited training;

●Implementing communication channels foremployers and young people to access information byusing the existing free phone number (held within the Participation Tracking team) and email address: .

● Engaging with schools to promote RPA and link with employers with work experience opportunities.

● A targeted internal communications and external public relations campaign will be implementedfrom the 1st September 2013 to promote the benefits of continued accredited learningto both young people and employers. .

●Utilising social media to market training to YP who are OWOT.

● Facilitate an advertising campaign to target employers through newspapers and radio.

●Direct marketing to YP via Intervention Advisers, Youth Offending Teams, Adult Community Learning, and Youth Services;

●Targeted advertising on websites specifically accessed by young people based on data relating to identified cohorts.

● Emails directed to employers within sectors identified as historically offering opportunities without accredited training to raise awareness of RPA;

● Collaboration with schools, utilising established relationships via the Participation Consultants to enable information to be made available at Careers Fairs for Parents of students in Years 10 & 11.

● Evaluation of the marketing campaign through the monitoring of contacts and outcomes.

●Monitor processes in place to ensure the accurate recording of YP destinations tooptimise youngpeople’soccupational options, and identification of sectors for future targeting;

● Link the OWOT strategy with the NEET reduction strategy to identify and specific cohorts of young people requiring support to re-engage in learning.

Management of Risk

  • Data sharing may be a significant barrier to collaborative working. This process requires the sharing of information between both internal and external agencies such as JCP, providers, voluntary agencies and other ECC services. To overcome this potential issue, Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) will need to be agreed. Recently, SLA’s have been implemented to share information on learners for both the Youth East and Youth Contracts, with the respective lead providers, in addition fair processing notices will be sent to all year 11 students.
  • Contacting learners within the OWOT cohort could present issues, particularly where personal contact details change or the young person does not maintain contact.New innovativeways of engaging with learners within the OWOT cohort are proposed to enhance awareness of a young person’sparticipation responsibilities’ plus the benefits of accredited training.A marketing strategy has been developed which includes a media brief, Radio campaign, newspaper advertising, and a RPA leaflet.
  • The advisor resource within the Employability and Skills Intervention Team will need to be targeted effectively to ensure that the maximum positive outcomes for learners are achieved.Other ECC teams linking to the Employability and Skills Unit will contribute by consolidating the employer offer and maintaining the link between teams. For example, the link to Invest Essex will be utilised to ensure employment opportunities for young people are linked to accredited training.
  • Young people’s aspirations and employment choices will need to be closely monitored. Young people need to be influenced to take up employment with accredited training. Monthly analysis and segmentation of LMI data,will allow the Employability and Skills Unit to identify employers. Promotion of accredited training via learner bulletins, text, email, phone, schools, parents and external organisations will increase awareness of continued participation in accredited learning.
  • The Employability and Skills Unit’s ability to place young people into suitable jobs may be constrained by their availability. The effective influencing of employers is pivotal to the strategy. Mitigation of risk will require sustained engagement with employer groups such as the Institute of Directors, Chambers of Commerce, and Sector Skills Councils whilst linking with providers, DWP and other agencies with employer engagement functions.
  • Employers may take the decision to employ older learners (outside of RPA) rather than change their training procedures to incorporate accredited training. The benefits of employing a young person will need to be promoted effectively. The proposed adviser advocacy role will be pivotal to the success of the OWOT strategy.
  • Many employers offer excellent opportunities for career and wage progression including:
  • Marks & Spencer
  • John Lewis
  • McDonalds
  • Civil Service

Civil Service jobs, for example, are highly sought after and attract a high calibre of applicants as well as offering entry level recruitment to people with limited qualifications. None of the in-house training above offers formal qualifications (i.e. they are not registered on the QCF). The Whole Essex Community Budget recognised the importance of training being focused towards the needs of local businesses and industry. If well respected localised training isn’t recognised. YP participation in (non-QCF) industry led training may be devalued. Therefore ECC will need to influence government that non-QCF training, where relevant to local industry, should carry equal weight to QCF accredited training. A way of achieving this could be to develop local industry accreditation.