LLEP guide helps businesses offer work experience that benefits everyone

During the Chamber’s annual Employability and Skills Summit on 9 July, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) launched a guide for employers, showing them how they can tap into a future workforce by offering experiences of the workplace.

The guide is free, and covers how employers can benefit from encounters with potential employees, work experience, internship, and the new T-level qualifications.

Many employers in Leicester and Leicestershire are thinking of different ways to grow their workforce and ensuring that young people with the qualifications needed know about their company.

For employers concerned about future recruitment, there are lots of ways to get involved at the grass-roots.

Building the Workforce of the Future is a guide with all the information employers need to offer experience of the workplace, whatever their size or amount of time they can offer.

It explains how different encounters of the work place can benefit employers in the long term, by providing a pipeline of talent into their company.

The LLEP Skills Team coordinated a working group to collate Building the Workforce of the Future, with a range of real life case studies featuring local employers and their experiences.

For a young person leaving education, there are a host of options available when it comes to starting a career. Research shows how having encounters of the workplace can hugely benefit young people, by helping them be more aware of local industries and what employers need.

In the coming years, T-levels – a new further education qualification – will start to appear on the CVs of young people looking to break into industry. T-levels are each equivalent to three A-levels and to pass, a young person must gain 315 hours’ work experience alongside their studies.

Any employer offering the opportunity to gain this experience at their business could benefit hugely from such an arrangement. By setting up a talent pipeline in this way, a business could secure a line of qualified young people moving directly from education to its sector for the foreseeable future.

The LLEP’s guide booklet has all the information an employer might need to get started in offering experience of the workplace. It also has links to web pages full of useful contacts to help guide employers through the process of setting up relationships with local schools and colleges in Leicester and Leicestershire.

Kevin Harris is Chair of the LLEP Board of Directors and President of the Chamber. He said: “A growing economy needs skilled workers. At the LLEP, we passionately believe that our local businesses should be involved every step of the way.

“By becoming involved in skills education and providing opportunities for work experience, businesses can make an investment in their own future, and the future of the economy of Leicester and Leicestershire.”

The East Midlands Employability and Skills Summit, brings together employers, education and skills partners to find solutions to present skills challenges.

The event began with welcome addresses from Scott Knowles, the Chamber’s Chief Executive, and Helen Smith, Head of Careers, Employability and Employer Engagement at Loughborough University. After this, keynote speeches on topics including bridging the gap between employers and education and career-related learning took place. Delegates then attended workshops on specific topics, including one run by the LLEP on the Building the Workforce of the Future guide.

You can see an online version of Building the Workforce of the Future at

https://www.llep.org.uk/investing-in-our-people/skills-guide-building-the-workforce-of-the-future/.