Hello and welcome to the blog for the Skills for Life, Learning and Work in Primary Schools project!  This space is for keeping everyone involved from schools, parents, learners and businesses up to date on how the project is going.  The first post is just a little background for everyone interested.

The Project:

This project has been set out by the council to research the teaching of skills for life, learning and work in Primary Schools in Midlothian.  The overall aim will then be to create materials and support to teach skills for life, learning and work in partnership with parents and the wider community.  These materials will include links between Schools and businesses to help set up visits and projects, online tools and assessment materials.

The CBI reports that 75% of businesses are willing to be involved, but that 48% say there is not enough guidance on supporting project linking schools and businesses.  This project will serve to fill the gap that has been identified and provide long term guidance and support on linking businesses and primary schools.

Background:

This is in line with the Scottish Government’s ‘Developing the Young Workforce’ (DYW) programme which aims to bring employers and local organisations closer to education.  The DYW project runs from age 3 onwards (we will be focusing on the early years) while trying to improve the long-term employability of the workforce.  The importance of starting the practice of learning about life and work skills earlier in the learning process has also been highlighted as the best way to improve future work opportunities.

This also links to broader Education Scotland programmes including ‘How Good is our School’ (HGIOS).  Set up to develop self-evaluation and improvement HGIOS outlines quality indicators for schools that include, promoting partnerships (with other schools, businesses and the community) and increasing the creativity and employability of learners.  So supporting this project and helping develop the teaching of skills for life, learning and work offers a fantastic opportunity to improve these quality indicators.

Thank you for reading our new blog, I will be updating it to let everyone know what opportunities we find throughout the research.

Matthew McDonald.