Employer Engagement in Education Dr Elnaz Kashefpakdel | Head of Research Education and Employers www.educationandemployers.org @Edu_Eresearch @Edu-Employers

Education and Employers at a glance Research and Delivery charity established in 2009 Promote the engagement of the world of work into schools and colleges Research into the importance of the employer engagement in education: providing evidence that it works, how it works and why Matchmaking website connecting volunteers from the world of work and schools: Inspiring the Future (www.inspiringthefuture.org), 40,000 volunteers, 85% of secondary schools and 3,500 primary schools Works in partnership with academics, policymakers and practitioners

Economic impact – Wages In 2013, we asked nearly 1000 19-24 year olds about their current earnings and how many employer engagement activities they remembered taking part in while at school. After controlling for background characteristics, we found… A 4.5% or £900 wage premium with each employer contact. In 2016, we drew on longitudinal data which follows ~17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales. Again after controlling for For each career talk with someone from outside of the school experienced at age 14-15 young people benefited from a 0.8% wage premium when they were 26. In 2017, we again asked 1,744 19-24 Britons to recollect their experiences of school and how well it prepared them for adult life. We found… A 4.1% or £648 wage premium with each employer contact if the young person found the activity ‘useful in getting a job’.

Economic impact – NEET In 2013, We had asked our respondents about their status on the day of the poll in 2011 and then put our young people into two groups – those who were in education, employment or training (people who were actively and formally building their human capital or exchanging it for cash with an employer) or not doing so. We found… Students who do two or more engagement activities could be on average up to 20% less likely to become NEET compared to their peers who did no engagement activity. In 2017, we found… Students who took part in one activity were 44% less likely to be NEET compared to their peers who did no engagement activity. Higher volumes of school-mediated employer engagement are associated with reduced incidence of NEET by up to 86%

What makes the difference? Human capital: technical skills, employability skills, attainment, qualifications (Becker) Social capital: ‘norms’ and support networks, access to non-redundant trusted information (Granovetter) Cultural capital: attitudes and assumptions; confidence in aspirations, language and presentation, ‘a fish in water’ (‘business awareness’) (Bourdieu)

Why is it important now than a generation ago?

Indicators of successful transitions Theme one: Thinking about the future Theme two: Talking about the future Theme three: Experiencing the future Theme four: Thinking about school

Solution: It needs to be simple, free and accessible for schools Use of technology Scalable to national level Efficiency Offers a range of activities, range of jobs, range of backgrounds, across seniority levels Complementary to other schemes at school

@Edu_Eresearch @Edu_Employers Thank you! Please keep in touch: Elnaz.Kashef@educationandemployers.org www.educationandemployers.org/research @Edu_Eresearch @Edu_Employers