Skills for Life Learning and Work in Primaries.

Hello all, this is an update on the Skills for Life, Learning and Work in Midlothian’s Primary’s project.  Having completed much of the research already, we have had some brilliant feedback from schools and businesses, we are looking forward to meeting more over the next few weeks.

Feedback and meetings

The feedback we have received so far has been overwhelmingly positive.  Schools have identified the area of skills for life, learning and work as a key target area for improvement.  Once we have collated more feedback from schools we will be able to find exactly what improvements we are going to strive to support.

Some great support already exists nationally and getting the DYW regional group and Skills Development Scotland on board with the project has been very promising as these groups provide some of the best tools and support for schools.  They are really keen on working more with primary schools in Midlothian and are making some of their tools like ‘Marketplace’ and ‘My World of Work’ (which includes a skills builder, animal me and my interests) more accessible for Primaries.  We will give a demonstration on how to use these when we meet later in the project.

We have also received some terrific feedback from local businesses about how they work with primary schools in the region and what they think would improve the process of employer and primary school engagement.  This has included facilitating better and smoother links between organisations and primary schools, which is something we are working on creating an interactive map to support.

Parents

We are trying to involve parents by giving them as much information as possible about the developments of the teaching of skills for life, learning and work.  So far we have managed to reach out to more than half of the parent councils in Midlothian and seen lots of enthusiastic replies about the project.  We will endeavour to reach out more and find out from parents what improvements they would like to see in the teaching of skills for life, learning and work going forwards.

Event

To bring all of this research together we will be meeting on Tuesday 15^th November at the National Mining Museum from 4.15-5.00pm.  We will be running through the opportunities pack that we are working on to send out to schools to help facilitate the teaching of skills for life, learning and work, particularly through experiences with local organisations. This event will also be attended by members of the local authority, Skills Development Scotland and the DYW regional group and refreshments will be provided.

If you have any feedback, or something you would like us to address please don’t hesitate to comment or email me on m.mcdonald@mgfl.net

Thanks,

Matthew McDonald

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.