Employers and trusted partners visited Craven College to join Amanda Carr, Careers Manager, Beth Snowden, EdTech Lead, and Alex Aspden, Head of Partnerships and Stakeholders to form a focus group to discuss how we can align our curriculum with the needs of local businesses, so we provide the necessary essential skills and digital skills for our students.
We were delighted to welcome the following local guests to share their expertise and professional experience towards a common goal: –
Bevan Yates – Cactus IT
Carl Mitchell – Icon Web Design
Lucy Boyes – Beyondly
Michaela Young – York & North Yorkshire County Council
Paresh Mistry (MD) – Right at Home
Samuel Harrop (M) – Right at Home
Sarah Howsen – Skipton BID
Following a welcome with delicious refreshments provided by catering students, an introductory chat, and a vote of thanks to our guests from Duncan Bulloch, Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Skills, we enjoyed a rich conversation offering helpful insights as to how we can provide our students with those essential skills to drive employability.
Amanda Carr said, “We value the input of employers to achieve our mutual goal of supporting students into employment. From being able to support students with the skills and behaviours that would be required in the workplace to sharing our exciting strategies for the future and agreeing the importance of working collaboratively. We were able to discuss digital badges to evidence those skills for the next academic year, understanding the vital role that employers would play in making these of value both to students and in the wider community.
We heard about essential interpersonal skills; those that employers look for beyond the qualifications of candidates including a positive attitude, communication skills, resilience, passion and enthusiasm, good work ethic and drive, empathy, and candidates being able to discuss their own strengths.
Discussion then moved onto digital skills, and we were able to tap into the targeted expertise of our guests from the digital sector to hear their innovative thinking as to what skills are needed, including core digital skills, effective email communication skills, digital efficiency, social media knowledge, understanding AI and knowing which tool is best for the job.
Beth Snowden said, “We recognise there is much research we can consider to develop the essential skills and digital skills of our learners to prepare them for their future employability. However, Amanda and I felt it was important to hear directly from our employers in Craven; we wanted to know their concerns so we could align the curriculum to meet their needs.
“It was a real pleasure to facilitate this focus group. The conversation was lively and insightful with one employer saying it was a privilege to play a part in this kind of open collaboration. The College can use these employers’ recommendations in our action plan to drive forward the essential skills and digital skills of our students with one key them emerging throughout; interpersonal skills such as communication, problem-solving and being a team player are very much still valued by all our employers and nurturing these skills in our learners is simply essential.”
We would like to thank all our guests for taking the time to visit and to bring their expertise to help us strategise and strengthen our offering.
