Finding the ‘why’ ...
... of employer engagement
Jamie Green, Abingdon and Witney College
When I first heard about Teach Too I was struck by the concept of the so-called two-way street, the vision of a more dynamic relationship between colleges and employers. The approach advises us to outline the benefits of working together.
But how should we do this? What’s the best way? A business breakfast perhaps. A meeting where we outline what we can ‘offer’? A briefing on the new curriculum? An invitation to take our students on work placements?
All tried and tested methods. But are they always successful?
The lightbulb moment for me was when I asked similar ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions of a colleague. His advice was to think about why an employer would wish to work with you.
Lightbulb moment
I had read Simon Sinek’s Find Your Why, the leadership bestseller, but I had not applied it to my work at the college. Sinek’s hypothesis is that successful businesses are better at communicating why they are doing something and sharing it. Apple doesn’t start from what and how it makes iPads and iPods—but why it makes them—that is central to Sinek’s ‘golden circle’.
Application to Teach Too
Our Teach Too project allowed us to develop a Working Together Framework to give practical methods for engaging with industry partners. In doing so, we felt it was as important to think about why something was not working. We focussed on two curriculum areas, one with good links with employers and the other without.
In developing the Framework it was interesting to discover similar challenges and common solutions.
The capacity challenge
One local business owner told me he gets 40 emails a week asking for work experience. The volume of requests now is such that he no longer bothers to answer them. The worrying thing about the requests is that people assume they know what he can offer and what he needs. In fact, when we spoke, he was more interested in giving college staff a taster session to feed back into their teaching.
The other side of the coin is that college staff are busy people too. Most colleagues do not have time allocated for ‘employer engagement’. Where it works, there are dedicated staff with industry links and a time of the year when staff focus on this. Staff in health and social care use the summer months to find new employers and maintain relationships so that industry placements are effective.
Common Incentives
In our Working Together framework we call this finding the common incentives. This is all about exploring ‘why’ an employer should work with us.
Not all of the items below will chime with all business leaders, but they reflect the conversations we’ve been having.
· Thinking about the future: employers are often interested in the views of students as the next generation of their workforce, as well as future customers
· Raising their profile: working with the college often provides good publicity locally or within the industry
· Contributing to the local community: employers and their families often live locally and want to support local organisations
· Improving the current workforce: through their staff mentoring and developing students, and being involved in sessions at college
In terms of T-Levels, hosting a student placement gives employers the chance to:
· Share expectations and skills companies need
· Have an extra team member within the workforce
· Discover a students’ motivations for joining the industry
We found many college staff used these approaches already, but they were often built on personal relationships. This made them vulnerable if personnel (on both sides) moved on.
Quite often existing links had been made when the college’s mission ‘chimed’ with that of the industry partner.
Chiming
Our college’s message certainly chimed with motor racing giant Haas who installed a unique machine in our new skills centre to enable masterclasses. It was our ambition to offer the ‘next level to our student that really chimed with the company.
Likewise, the local music industry saw that we are all in the ‘same business.’ That was the language that chimed with them. We came to an agreement by talking about what the business wants from the perspective of students and staff involved in the local music scene.
We also found the Ofsted concept of ‘intent’ often chimes with employers and in particular the need to consider the local context.
A renewed focus on curriculum means that we are increasingly co-designing content and co-delivering with employers.
‘If you spoke to a customer like that you’d be fired’
If there’s one thing I have learnt from this project is that we often get bogged down with the ‘what’ of technical education. But vocational skills are wider than that. We have to ask ourselves the question ‘how do we need these young people to be different when they leave us?’
Local businesses told us that new employees often come with a specific skillset but do not have the adaptability modern workplaces demand. For example, they may have high IT skills but cannot talk to a customer. This is why it is essential employers help set briefs and give feedback such as that above. That is a real learning point for students!
College staff are also upfront about their professional updating needs. But colleges need to make space for staff to develop. This is part of our new framework’s diagnostic checklist; if we don’t have the time, make it.
That is a clear message for managers as well as front line staff.
Stop thinking about them as 'employers'
However, the main take-away from the project was about the language we were using. The framework does not refer to engagement activity with ‘employers.’ Instead we use the more flexible term ‘external partners.’
In order to enhance the curriculum, our partner may not even be employers at all. They may even be retired but have a high level of skill that can be passed onto students. Some partners may be employees whose business is not involved directly.
There is much to be learned here. Most of our students will be employees before they are employers. A recent retiree with very specialist skills worked with our students in a voluntary capacity. There are many people with skills who tell us they want to give back.
Changing the word changes everything. As a good educator you can always see the way.
The common ingredient will always be ‘why’ you want to work together. When this ‘chimes’ you will have a good collaboration.
It really will be a two-way street.