'How we gave young York people hope where none had existed before'

2004 - Staff and pupils at Burnholme Community College celebrate being awarded Specialist Status for Business and Enterprise (Image: Garry Atkinson)

York school's 1990s blueprint to tackle the NEETs challenge

Former York teacher JOHN FLETCHER advised pupils on work experience and careers and has some wise words for the new PM

ONE of the big issues facing us today is how can we reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (so-called NEETs)?

In my opinion, a plan from 25 years ago is still relevant today.

Reading about new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s plans to reduce the million NEETS, ignited a passion in me – and reminded me of the important work I was doing at Burnholme School in creating a well-rounded and well-prepared workforce for the 21st century.

The far-sighted and radical decisions taken by two dedicated headteachers at Burnholme in the 1990s resulted in a perfect blueprint to prepare young people for work.

The first decision was to create a bespoke job which brought all the four cornerstones of work-related learning under one roof: careers advice, work experience, CV creation and business links; these are all interrelated and one cannot exist without the other.

The second step was to give that task to one person – me – who had a full grasp and control of all the separate elements.

The third step was to give that person free rein to expand horizons, raise expectations and give young people hope where none had existed before.

Successful work-related learning wasn’t rocket science. It began with a half-hour interview in Year 9 with a careers professional who teased out a student’s interests and aspirations, found that spark which could ignite into a flame if fanned correctly.

2004 - Staff and pupils at Burnholme Community College celebrate being awarded Specialist Status for Business and Enterprise

(Image: Garry Atkinson)

Held in my careers library, these were ably handled by York Careers Service, and sometimes also signposted a possible work experience choice.

It’s no exaggeration to say that schools are running upside down – gaining a career or becoming fit to join the workforce should be top of a school’s agenda with every subject feeding into their informed options choices at age 16.

Instead, careers is relegated to a sideline and schools are exam-driven, competing with other schools for student numbers and the amount of high grades achieved.

The work experience choices were handled by me, assisted by Trident (remember them?), a dedicated and committed team whose sole purpose was to match square pegs to square holes.

A crucial part of the process, two weeks were allocated instead of the one week grudgingly allowed nowadays.

This allowed students to find their feet in the first week and make a valuable contribution in the second.

Plus they were all visited by teachers or myself so they could feed back, and employers could feed back too – valuable data to be used further down the line.

Recording that achievement came next. The much-maligned Records Of Achievement “purple menus" were introduced and students encouraged to use them and fill them in.

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I constantly championed the value of these as the government intended. This is where you kept your work experience reference, your Duke of Edinburgh awards, your letter from the librarian about being a library monitor, every scrap of paper which you could lay your hands on which said good things about you.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham (right) during a visit to Alstom Transport in Derby, to unveil a change to the education system with the launch of new technical educational routes.

(Image: Agency)

Did you take part in a pilot scheme at school? Did you do a Saturday job? Even after- school clubs or helping at a school production – everything went into the file and employers were encouraged to read it to assess future employability (although not all employers got on board with this).

And, to complete the square, business links. Students can read everything about a job or a career, or university, but there is no substitute for experiencing it in real life. A trip to a business, or a factory, an exciting talk from someone who came from nothing and built a company, an overnight stay in a university, practical skills taught in an after-school club by volunteers all made possible by a school’s links with local businesses.

And businesses should embrace this model. Partnering with a school results in a choice of school leavers who at age 16 have had sensible careers advice, completed their choice of work experience, have the beginnings of a CV which identifies their strengths and already know how business and industry work through exposure to real-life situations.

This four-cornered approach to employment skills learning led to the school and myself being featured in a Government White Paper in 2002, held up as a beacon of good practice nationwide, and eventually an award of Specialist Status for Business and Enterprise and conference lectures for me to spread the word as far away as Hertfordshire.

The only sad thing is that this situation comes around every ten or 15 years or so. Before I began teaching at Burnholme School (later Burnholme Community College) a wonderful initiative called TVEI had fizzled out and in the late 90s I was the only teacher in York in control of all four strands as a full-time job.

And now it’s come round again.

Let’s hope Andy Burnham can find a solution. Show him this article – maybe it will help him in his quest!

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