National success for Cornwall’s careers service

By Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership - 24th September 2019

Skills Success

A report from the national Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), published today (Friday, 20 Sept), has highlighted the outstanding join-up between businesses and education in the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly area.

In particular the CEC has praised the work of the Careers Hub Cornwall and Isles of Scilly for bringing schools and businesses together, saying it was leading the way nationally when it comes to student contact with employers and work experience.

The Careers Hub is part funded by the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership and Cornwall Council. It aims to improve careers guidance by building links with business to inspire and engage local students about their future.

The CEC report highlights that secondary schools in Cornwall and Scilly are now offering more work experience than anywhere else in the country.

Carrie Childs, Careers Hub lead, commented: “It is fantastic to see the commitment of our local schools and businesses in offering work experience to a higher proportion of students than anywhere else in the country. Our colleagues in the Education Business Partnership who organise work experience do an outstanding job and had over 5,000 students in placements last year. We need to continue this great work and also try to increase the quality and range of offers by working closely with the supportive business community that we have here.”

As well as work experience, Cornwall also achieved the highest for engagement with employees and employers for every year that a student is at school or college.

Glenn Caplin, Chief Executive of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said, “The fact that our schools are experiencing the highest levels of business engagement in the country really is testament to the great support from the business community and also the excellent work carried out by schools careers leaders and the Careers Hub.

“Over the past two years the amount of engagement has increased substantially and this is set to continue. We want to build on this growth and work with even more local businesses as it is vital that students have the skills, ambition and experience to get jobs in the future and give our growing businesses the skills they need. With developments in the space, energy, creative and digital sectors there are great opportunities in Cornwall and Scilly.”

For businesses wanting to get involved with schools engagement activity please click here.

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP is business-led and works with local authorities, education providers and others to drive forward economic growth and job creation in our area by concentrating on business, people and places.

To date we have secured Growth Deals and other funding from Government to support an investment programme worth more than £450 million, investing in a raft of projects ranging from road improvements to unlock housing and employment sites and ease congestion, to rail infrastructure projects, new workspace and business growth.