Bringing skills back to school

By Ann Jones AM

Those of us concerned with seeking out progressive solutions to the problems that Welsh society faces will recognise a poverty of aspiration as a strong characteristic of some of our most deprived communities. This has the potential to cascade through generations and we know it does in too many parts of Wales.

Labour’s fight to end child poverty is rightly a totem point for us all but I believe our schools have an element of untapped potential to help raise the ambition and aspirations of our young people. This potential lies in the wealth of skills, talent and know-how that many former pupils have in abundance.

There are over 200 secondary schools in Wales with former pupils dotted around Wales, the UK and indeed the world. The relationship these people have with their old school is largely non-existent, meaning the pupils of today are cut off from the success stories that shared their classrooms and may have even had the same teachers.

It is all too often the case that pupils in secondary school are told of the odd student that ‘went off to Oxford, Cambridge or LSE’ as if this can serve as inspiration to any young student. It does not and cannot.

What it can do is give that child with the top grades an extra nudge to excel. That is fantastic but at the same time, incredibly narrow. Secondary schools across Wales should be calling out to ex-pupils from a huge expanse of professions but it just isn’t happening on anywhere near the scale it could be.

I am confident that from a span of just several year groups that finished their A-levels in the early part of this decade you could find opticians, solicitors, professional musicians, graphic designers, civil engineers, doctors, nurses, IT consultants, small business owners and many others who have a plethora of knowledge and insight to offer their old school.

We know that these ex-pupils will have grades from schools in some of the most deprived parts of Wales – and indeed Europe – so they are in a unique position to help level the playing field for the class of today. I am also confident that enough former students will offer their time to run workshops for interested pupils. With sufficient will power this scheme could cover Wales with virtually no price tag.

Impressive work is being done to offer a comprehensive suite of courses to young people, in college and sixth forms and I see this as the ideal supplement within this as the Government helps young people make the right choices for their future. With the support of the Welsh Assembly Government and, ideally, the CBI and/or the FSB, young people could access face to face mentoring that brings careers out of the abstract and into a challenging and inspiring format with people who were probably born in the same hospital as the pupils.

However committed and capable a careers teacher may be, what they can offer young students is very limited. My concern is that these limitations mean that pupils are not getting a realistic perspective of how different professions, industries and recruitment processes actually work.

This is far from being a great leveller. The entrenched problems of addiction and worklessness at home are faced by children growing up in poverty on a day to day basis and they are not easily overcome. Wider Government policies must take aim at these problems on a long term basis.

But what this scheme can do – and right away – is offer children across Wales a taste of what can, and crucially, what has been, achieved by pupils from their school. This could come in the form of tailored workshops offering practical advice and information from professionals who are talking about their jobs rather than regurgitating prescriptive and rigid guides on ‘pathways’ into various occupations.

What most professionals will know is that – as well as hard work and applied knowledge – what employers are looking for is insight. This is something careers teachers are aware of but understandably struggle to offer students. Workshops co-ordinated by careers staff will allow them to gain enormously from outside expertise that can be passed on to students further down the line.

One off competitions and fares run by the private sector and some major public sector employers do offer a flavour of what employers seek but again this is ad hoc and narrow at best. I think that we can harness the good will that exists to create a more substantial and effective scheme that can really open up new opportunities. Employers have much more to gain from a sustained, national scheme that really reaches out to students from the GCSE stage onwards.

To use an example, if a barrister were to take part in the scheme, he or she could choose or create a relatively simple case to send on to the school a week before a workshop with instructions for students to present a case ‘for’ and ‘against’ based on the evidence supplied. This would then allow the ex-pupil to offer immediate feedback and expertise when the homework has already been done. Extremely useful tips and ideas could be offered on public speaking and critical analysis in just one session.

Young people must work hard to make this worthwhile but what they can get out at the end is potentially priceless. This system also means that schools are not asking ex-pupils to become teachers all of a sudden but when interested students have already attempted a piece of work, the classroom can then become just like the workplace. For that hour or two, the students could work almost as an intern. This is something that most professionals would be familiar with and as long as that person is working on the tasks they know inside out then a small classroom becomes much less intimidating.

If this scheme were to receive backing within the public and private sector, whilst being spearheaded by the Welsh Assembly Government, children from right across Wales will have access to a growing network of first class professionals no matter what school they go to or what their parents do. I believe a scheme like this has the potential to attract countless skilled individuals to help extend life chances to young people who might otherwise be left behind.

You don’t need to be a progressive to be passionate about helping your old school – but you do need a progressive government to give it value.

For an example of this type of scheme, visit the Future First website.

Tagged in: Schools, Jobs, Youth.