LINKING LONDON STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY EVENT  

 

STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY

AN FE PERSPECTIVE

Barking and Dagenham College

Key Facts about Barking and Dagenham College’s Employability Strategy

BDC is one of only 20 Gazelle Colleges in the UK.

Barking and Dagenham College (BDC) operates in an area which is the seventh highest nationally in this index of deprivation.

BDC is a college for all age groups - with 12,000 students (of which around 3,500 are age 16 – 18) - offering hundreds of courses across a wide range of subject areas.

BDC offers courses from beginners to degree level, including a post-graduate Master of Business Administration.

Ofsted April 2013 said:– “Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship”;– “Outstanding Leadership and Management of the Student Experience”;– Home of the Association of Colleges’ Student of the Year 2013:

Vicky Knight, Health & Social Care student

• Real work training environments help students develop employability skills.

• Specialist off-campus training centres mean students train in a real-work environment

– Motor Vehicle & Motorsport Training Centre

– The Broadway Theatre

– Barking Learning Centre offering employability courses for adults

• National award-winners in the TES Further Education Awards

– 2014: Outstanding support for students

– 2014: Highly commended – Provider of the Year

– 2012: Outstanding e-learning team

– 2011: Outstanding entrepreneurship in learning and skills

Gazelle Colleges

Gazelle Entrepreneurial Colleges aim to prepare students for the challenges of 21st century employment by offering new models of learning based on real business contexts and challenging work experiences, that will equip students with the skills to be creative, confident and resilient in the workplace.

Redefining EmployabilityEmployability is no longer just about accumulating the skills and qualifications to be employed in jobs created by others.

Employability is about developing the T-shaped skills that make students work ready for all types of work environments.

Entrepreneurship is about the student’s ability to create new solutions and benefits through their own imagination and ambition to make things happen through their interpersonal skills and personal drive.

It is a mind-set and a way of acting in the world rather than a set of defined skills.

Entrepreneurial capabilities and behaviours are learned through planned and reflective business experiences.

Future: Rather than being enrolled onto particular courses, students could/will be recruited as paid partners in a Gazelle Learning Company through a Learning Contract.

T-Shaped People

BDC provides a contract for entrepreneurial learning through real work

 

The combination of technical expertise on a chosen field together with the wider capabilities of creativity, team-working enterprise and other personal qualities is captured by the idea of T-shaped people.

Entrepreneurial Pod

The Pod is an entrepreneurial zone based within the College designed to help students and members of the local community to develop their entrepreneurial business and employability skills through action.

Components of the POD

Learning Companies

BDC Learning Companies are identifiable accounting divisions of BDC holding company – Aspire, limited by guarantee, with a charitable aim of advancing education.

They operate as normal commercial entities to provide authentic working environments i.e. motor vehicle garage, construction service, design academy and Citizen’s Advice Bureau. Comprehensive working practices learned in one context will be directly transferable into other commercial contexts.

These students will be work ready, have contributed to a real commercial venture, be able to demonstrate a level of business ‘nous’ that will be valuable to future employers.

Components of the POD (Continued)

Students are exposed to a framework of entrepreneurial capabilities:

Self-Efficacy – Personal qualities needed for success in new world of work e.g. focus and drive, reliability, reflectiveness

Social Skills – capabilities to fund, make and manage networks and collaborations e.g. team working, networking, communication, customer service.

Functional Skill – Knowledge and abilities in particular business or technical areas, e.g. technical competence, technical knowledge and e-confidence.

Enterprise – Understanding and aptitudes for driving successful enterprises, e.g. commercial nous, creativity, problem solving, risk-taking.

Components of the POD (Continued)

Entrepreneurial Programme

Provides a range of course seminars and workshops that give students a taste of what is needed to start a small business, to be entrepreneurial and become work ready. Compulsory entrepreneurial skills tutorials.

Talent Bank

Comprised of current and past students who complete work for external and internal clients. Real work for students process.

Launcher

Doug Richard’s School of Start-ups provides low interest loans to get small businesses off the ground, e.g. beauty, hair, multi-media, clothing, fitness, e-commerce and fashion.

Competitions

Students take part in a range of competitions e.g. Pants for Poverty, Market Marker, Edge, EMSI (App). Working on these real business challenges provides hands-on business experience in: Business planning, marketing and sales strategy, team building, idea generation, product design, website, youtube videos, pitching to experts.

Shop Outlets

As result of the successful Dragon’s Den pitches, the following building outlets providing students with business start-ups are operating:

•Bits and Bobs – stationery

•Pop Pics – photography

•2 Fix Solutions – IT sales and servicing

•Blooming Delicious – Floristry

Real-Work Training Environments

•Commercial Restaurants

•Beauty and Hair Salons

•BDC Sports Centre

• BDC has got working and on-going relationships with organisations and companies to assist our student’s employment prospects.  We have a working partnership with the Estee Lauder Group, where we recommend our best Hair and Beauty students for retail beauty jobs. 

• BDC host Interview workshops where students have the opportunity to have a speed-dating experience with employers such as Siemens, Metro Bank, Bouygues, Balfour Beatty, MACE and Skanska.

• BDC also run a programme giving students the opportunity to practice their interview and presentation skills.  Giving competence based feedback and advice on how to present to an audience, a panel and give a power-point presentation, as well as CV

advice.

Employer Partnerships

Employability Qualifications Offered by BDC

Edexcel Level 1 EmployabilityThis course will help learners move towards and into employment via the development of essential employability skills.Progression to Level 2

NCFE Level 2 EmployabilityThis course is designed to enhance employability skills for a variety of learners, including individuals looking for a career change and under-16s in compulsory education.Progression to Level 3