The HEY LEP held its first Summer School and College Conference on Wednesday 29th June 2022 at the stunning MKM Arena. Attended by over 70 delegates from areas including Hull, East Yorkshire, London and Lancashire. The conference focussed on how to further improve and build upon the existing high quality careers provision delivered locally, maximising employer input to be further embedded in school and college careers activities.
Speakers included James Moon, the Careers and Enterprise Company Director of Networks, Mark Crofts, Head of Withernsea High School, Ann Newlove, HEY Smile Foundation and Steven Platten, Yorkshire Water, Mark Burly, Citywide Housing Partnership and Sarah Bone, Head of Headlands School in Bridlington.
Fiona Headridge, HEY LEP Careers Hub Manager explained, “The Careers Hub is a partnership funded by the national Careers and Enterprise Company, the two local authorities and the Humber Outreach Programme, which works with schools and colleges to strategically improve careers education, information, advice and guidance. This is hugely important to help young people recognise the opportunities that are available to them in their future careers, explaining and giving examples of the types of roles which are currently available and the new ones that will emerge as the economy further diversifies. We hope that this helps inspire our future young talent to maximise their skills and make the best choices for themselves in terms of education and training and those vital employability skills.”
Chair of the Hubs’ Cornerstone Employer group Mark Burley, spoke at the event, “Alongside the other Cornerstone Employers, The Hull Citywide Parnership recognises that we need to support the Careers Hub to bring our sectors and the huge range of jobs in the HEY region ‘to life’ for young people. For example the construction industry he construction industry offers everything from the typical bricklaying that most people recognise to procurement, sales and management– and jobs at every level, with great progression opportunities, some of which attract excellent salaries. Being a Cornerstone employer means I can explain to other employers what direct benefits this voluntary work brings to my own organisation. I am proud to say we now have 34 employer ‘Enterprise Advisers’ in the region alongside 6 Cornerstone Employers, which means offering more time to work with schools and colleges on developing their careers programmes.”
The Hub is supporting Careers Leaders in schools to ensure that careers activities maximise the region’s assets. This work has included a range of events and activities such as hosting the COP 26 Battle Bus Challenge for young people, Careers Link Governor training sessions, peer network meetings, CPD sessions for Careers Advisers, virtual employer encounter events and a virtual careers fair.
Chris Howell, the LEP Employment and Skills Manager presented an interesting picture of the future skills needs in the wider Humber region, including those opportunities which will emerge from Industry 4.0.
The interactive content of the day resulted in some great feedback on what more can be done to support young people and careers leaders who dedicate their time to this subject, ideas included involving parents more in careers guidance, developing student voice projects, supporting Careers Leaders with the skills they need to become champions for change and raising the profile of apprenticeships and technical qualifications.
Delegates heard first-hand from a number of young people explaining why careers advice was vital to them via two specific film pieces; one of which focussed on diversity and equality.
HEY LEP Chair, James Newman OBE, opened and closed the conference commenting, “This was an excellent example of how well the region comes together in partnership, sharing ideas that can be implemented back in the school environment to help our young people succeed. This is a key strength of Hull and East Yorkshire and one that I am always proud to boast about!”
The agenda for the event can be found here: HEY LEP Careers Hub summer conference agenda 2022
The Careers Hub Local Impact report discussed at the conference can be found here: HEYLEP Careers Hub evaluation FINAL EXEC SUM
A great case study can be read here: HEYLEP and Balfour Beatty school engagement case study
For more information, please contact: Fiona Headridge f.headridge@heylep.com
