Work experience: How businesses can inspire the next generation - Annual Review 2015

This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.

This is an extract from our Annual Review 2015.

When young people are exposed to the world of work, great things can happen. This should inspire more schools and businesses to collaborate, says John Dowd, headteacher of London's Haverstock School.

Yousuf Qureshi has been working with a business tutor from the business world ever since he joined Haverstock School's sixth form. His tutor focuses on motivating him to do well in his studies, but the influence doesn't end there.

The confidence Yousuf has gained from the relationship has not only made him aspire to a career in finance, it has also unleashed the entrepreneur in him. At just 17, Yousuf has turned his passion for bodybuilding into a small personal-training business and he now has long-term ambitions to set up his own fitness company.

He isn't alone. At Haverstock School, hundreds of current and former students have seen their ambitions and aspirations grow as a result of contact with the workplace.

Haverstock became a business and enterprise college at the very start of the specialist schools movement. We wanted our young people to see education as a means to a future rather than just a set of qualifications. To give them a glimpse into that future, we have been building longterm relationships with local high-profile businesses through a variety of initiatives for the past 15 years.

Key among those initiatives is the Career Academies programme, which we set up seven years ago. Around 90 students - that's 40% of our sixth form - are on the programme at any one time. Members receive a number of benefits, including, as Yousuf has, a personal business mentor for their two sixth-form years.

The icing on the cake is a six-week paid internship with a business partner at the end of Year 12. The internships are challenging and involve real work with high-profile businesses such as GE, McKinsey, Santander and Olswang. This summer, we sent 43 interns into businesses across London.

A child transformed

The transformation our young people undergo through this experience is phenomenal. They leave us as youths and come back as accomplished young men and women.

Working alongside senior business partners and graduates from leading universities makes them more confident, more articulate and more career-ready. They realise that they are as able to achieve those careers as anybody else, and that changes the way they value themselves.

Of those who were unsure about university, almost all of them decide that they do want to go as a result of their work experience. In fact, the majority of our Career Academies graduates have gone on to higher education.

The relationships that they form during those internships stay with them even once they've moved on from Haverstock. Once they have graduated from university, many of our students have gone back to work for the companies where they were interns.

The Career Academies programme and other collaborations with business have had a wider impact on our academic performance. We have seen our exam results improve consistently over the past five years and virtually all of our Year 13 students - around 98% - go on to university, many of them to do business-related courses.

Working with businesses helps our students to visualise what their future could look like. When they can see a concrete outcome, they're motivated to work harder. Spending time in a business environment teaches them to work smarter, too; they get better at time management, for example. What's more, this change in behavior has a ripple effect throughout the school: the students become role models to our younger pupils, who aspire to follow in their footsteps.

A special kind of business

It takes a special kind of business to partner with a school successfully. Young people are astute and will lose faith in work experience that is light-touch or tokenistic. Companies that are committed to building long-term relationships with schools, and invest in the time and resources to make that happen, are the ones that will succeed as partners.

For us, Olswang is a good example of this. From starting as a Career Academies business partner, its relationship with Haverstock has grown to include many more initiatives (see box, right). It works because there is a genuine commitment from Olswang to young people. It's not something it has to do, and it does it very well - we both benefit.

For business partners, the rewards of collaboration can be immense. Haverstock's pupils come from a diverse and disadvantaged community. Collectively, our students come from 61 countries; they speak 47 different languages; around 35% are refugees; a large number have special needs; and 80% qualify for free school meals. Many do not have the same opportunities outside school as their more privileged peers.

By helping our students to aspire, our business partners can help to right some of the inequalities that these young people face.

Our side of the deal

To make business collaborations work, schools need to do their bit too. We have invested in a small team that is dedicated to managing our business partnerships and making them a priority. We help businesses to understand how they can help by making our needs tangible - promoting opportunities for girls in the workplace, for example. And when problems arise, as they sometimes do, we are tenacious about solving them. We also celebrate our successes - not only because it's important to do so, but also because it motivates all those involved to do more and to do better.

Most importantly, business collaborations are not an add-on; they are integral to our long-term objective to prepare our students for progression beyond Haverstock. We do this through our careers education programme, which starts in Year 7 and continues through to the end of Year 13. The ceilings that young people put on their lives are often self-imposed. Business partnerships help schools to raise those ceilings bit by bit each day, ensuring that students such as Yousuf dare to have their dreams - and achieve them.

The Olswang-Haverstock partnership

Career Academies

In addition to offering paid internships and volunteering for the Partners in Business mentoring programme, Olswang participates in 'Guru Lectures', delivering talks on topics such as how a law firm actually works.

Lawyers in Schools

Olswang lawyers and barristers from Blackstone Chambers work with Year 10 students to help them learn their legal rights and responsibilities.

Art Award

Olswang runs an annual art competition for Year 12 art and photography students.

The entries are auctioned for the benefit of Haverstock's art department and Olswang's charity partner.

UCAS mentoring

Olswang helps Year 13 students to fill out their university application forms over the course of three sessions.

Access project

Olswang volunteers tutor motivated students in GCSE and A-level subjects to help them secure places at top universities. Olswang also funds 50% of the project.

The Olswang Business Experience

This comprises week-long work experience placements for Year 10 and Year 12 students. Olswang collaborates with clients including Microsoft and ITV, enabling the students to receive an even broader experience.

Strategy input

Two senior members of Olswang staff sit on the Career Academies Local Advisory Board. The board ensures that the Career Academies programme adheres to high standards of governance, leadership and delivery. A senior Olswang partner is also a Haverstock governor and sits on the Haverstock Finance Committee.

Funding

Olswang provides funding for a number of discrete projects that are nominated by teachers, governors and students.

Click here to view an electronic copy of our Annual Review 2015.