Professor Prue Huddleston Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick P.J.Huddleston@warwick.ac.uk Dr Anthony Mann Director of Policy and Research, Education and Employers Taskforce Anthony.Mann@educationandemployers.org

Questions To what extent do high performing independent schools engage with employers to support pupil learning and progression? Why do they do it? How do they go about it?

Methodology Focus on twenty high performing independent schools: Times 2009 league table Desk research Six in-depth structured interviews: 3 boys’ schools, 3 girls’ schools 3 in London, 3 outside of London 3 boarding, 3 day schools Fieldwork, November 2010 to June 2011 Literature review YouGov survey of 1,002 young adults (19-24) Fieldwork, February 2011

2009 Rank Name Town 1 Withington Girl’s School Manchester 2 Westminster School London 3 North London Collegiate School Edgware 4 St Paul’s School 5 Magdalen College School Oxford 6 St Paul’s Girls’ School 7 Perse Girls/Stephen Perse Sixth Form College Cambridge 8 Wycombe Abbey School High Wycombe 9 Royal Grammar School Guildford 10 City of London School for Girls 11 The Lady Eleanor Holles School Hampton 12 Eton College Windsor 13 King’s College School, Wimbledon 14 Sevenoaks School Sevenoaks 15 Guildford High School for Girls 16 Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls Elstree 17 Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boy’s School Borehamwood 18 Oxford High School GDST 19 Winchester College Winchester 20 South Hampstead High School GDST

To what extent do they engage employers? Institutions Types of Employer Engagement 1 Careers IAG 2 Work Experience 3 Business Mentoring 4 Enterprise Activities 5 Work-place Visits 6 Visiting Speakers Withington Girls School ü Westminster School North London Collegiate School St Pauls School Magdalen College School Oxford St Pauls Girls School Stephen Perse Foundation/ Perse Girls Wycombe Abbey School Royal Grammar School, Guilford City of London School for Girls Lady Eleanor Holles School Eton College Kings College School, Wimbledon Sevenoaks School Guildford High School For Girls Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls Haberdashers Aske’s Boys School Oxford High School GDST Winchester College South Hempstead High School GDST Desktop review of independent schools

100% undertake enterprise activities 90 % undertake work experience 85% undertake careers advice 80% undertake have visiting speakers 45% undertake workplace visits 25% undertake business mentoring

How typical is this behaviour of all independent schools? School type attended between 14-19 * Work experience participation rates Work Experience 14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form N Yes 90.0% 86.1% 84.8% 649 No 10.0% 13.9% 15.2% 82 N 530 122 79 731  School type attended between 14-19 * Percentage receiving careers advice Careers Advice 14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form N Yes 43.8% 48.4% 57.0% 336 No 56.2% 51.6% 43.0% 395 N 530 122 79 731 

School type attended between 14-19 * Frequency of careers advice 14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form Never 51% 47% 39% 338 Just once or twice 39% 39% 39% 268 More than this 10% 14% 22% 83 N 496 116 77 689 School type attended between 14-19 * Enterprise competition participation rate Enterprise Competition 14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N with sixth form with sixth form with sixth form Yes 27.2% 38.5% 37.5% 221 No 72.8% 61.5% 62.5% 510 N 529 122 80 731

School type attended 14–19 * Mentoring participation rate 14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N Yes 16.3% 15.7% 15.0% 117 No 83.7% 84.3% 85.0% 613 N 529 121 80 730

School type attended between 14-16 School type attended between 14-16 * Number of employer engagement activities 14-16 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N 0 31% 26% 31% 260 1 41% 44% 26% 346 2 16% 13% 23% 138 3 6% 8% 9% 59 4 or more 6% 9% 12% 66 N 552 204 113 869

Why they engage with employers? To help pupils get into university courses of choice? “My view is that they ought to have had time with a GP and time at a hospital before they put in an application.” (Teacher, girls’ school, D). To help pupils decide on career goals and how to achieve them “It’s much less to do with the world of work full stop, than a sense of this is a good thing to have on my particular CV of what I want to do.” (Teacher, boys’ school, B) To help pupils develop employability schools “You have a compelling mix of personal skills and academic qualifications and extra-curricular achievements that when you’re an employer you say, “this guy looks good”. (Teacher, boys’ school, A).

Why they engage with employers? To help pupils develop networks of value after leaving school “It’s all part of a good education, isn’t it? It’s all part of equipping them to leave school in the best possible position.” (Teacher, girls’ school, E) To help stimulate a culture of expectation & aspiration “As a master you can kind of see a lot of it going on around you, sort of handshakes ad smiles and you know…all sorts of exchanges going on that help that kid’s potential success, in addition to what we try to do at school.’ (Teacher, boys’ school, C)”

How do they engage with employers? Alumni networks “It’s such a good network through the old boys’ association, and the parents, we have sent out a blanket request and people will say “yes”, I’m happy to help.’” (Teacher, boys’ school, B) Parental networks “The girls can get in to do the places but it tends to be that they follow through the contact so it might be a parent contact… they follow it through themselves… and I would probably say it’s on the strength of the school that they get it.” (Teacher, girls’ school, E)

How do they engage with employers? Governors’ networks “Well there you go you see, this is the classic... one of our governors professor X is the... what’s the grandest thing you can be... not chair... senior...” Interviewer 2 “Registrar?” Interviewee “NHS foundation trust... now he came in and said, we can sort work experience out for your kids, that was never how it was presented... we had a meeting and wanted them to go in and do some work, and they do quite a lot of work and they produce presentations to the board to the CEO in the foyer of [large London hospital] all their photographs all their recommendations and they have to do that and they have to stand up and give a speech about it. Now that is putting them on the spot, it may be a bit uncomfortable, they have to do the work... but it’s going to resonate far more if they do that than if they shadowed... I want to produce more things like that.” (Teacher, boys’ school, A)

How do they engage with employers? Through intermediaries “...we have a personal advisor from ‘Connexions’ who comes in once a week, I’ve used ‘Connections’ if you like but I’ve used them as a consultancy service...” (Teacher, girls’ school, E) Pupil approaches “I think also our girls are pretty good at taking…very astute at taking advantage of opportunities, when we took them down to the ‘Breaking the mould’ competition… one of our girls negotiated her own sort of media work experience with the person who shot our video...” (Teacher, girls’ school, D) Direct approaches from employers “...they were always looking for very bright women most of these companies so they’re very keen to... In fact I’m always being approached by investment banks because they have various programmes... But I wish they would do something slightly more co-ordinated that I didn’t have to keep... They get in touch with you as if you had never heard of an investment bank... Well actually they’re the third investment bank this week!” (Teacher, girls’ school, E)

Work experience - Strongly linked to HE admissions - Often undertaken in the summer between lower and upper sixth, or after GCSEs. - Self-sourced after career counselling - Not always inspected for H & S - Written references secured “... The key thing... I think is ‘what have I learnt?’” (Head of Careers, girls’ school, D – reflecting on work experience)

Is it an extra-curricular activity? “No, I think it’s part of the curriculum because if it were extra-curricular it would seem to be so discretionary and you’re in competition with everything else... I’ve got to find them and give them a rich experience… one which doesn’t undermine one activity by putting it in competition with another if we can do it.” (Teacher, girls’ school, D) But rarely integrated into classroom teaching.

School type attended between 14-19 * Usefulness of Enterprise Project School type attended between age groups * Usefulness of Work Experience 14-19* deciding on a career getting a job getting in to HE N Non-selective 54% (16%) 27% (9%) 25% (6%) 441-470 Grammar 59% (19%) 31% (10%) 28% (11%) 94-105 Independent 81% (36%) 47% (15%) 42% (13%) 53-67 School type attended between 14-19 * Usefulness of Enterprise Project 14-19* deciding on career getting job getting in to HE N Non-selective 37% (5%) 29% (5%) 33% (5%) 101-156 Grammar 48% (6%) 36% (4%) 35% (5% ) 29-48 Independent 46% (3%) 33% (7%) 57% (7%) 12-30 School type attended between 14-19 * Usefulness of Careers Advice 14-19* deciding on career getting job getting in to HE N Non-selective 59% (10%) 39% (7%) 37% (10%) 223-232 Grammar 62% (12%) 38% (7%) 46% (7%) 55-58 Independent 81% (28%) 55% (13%) 37% (17%) 40-47 (Including a sixth form or college; percentages outside of brackets represent respondents who felt that their work experience helped them ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’; integers in brackets denote individuals who felt that their work experience helped them ‘a lot’)

Effective practice? All students across the year group engage in the projects associated with their age: Year 7 – Local community projects (helping out in schools) Year 8 – Enterprise day run by Young Enterprise Year 9 – Inspiring Futures fair trade enterprise activity, visiting speakers, careers fair Year 10 – Enterprise day run by Young Enterprise, visiting speakers, careers fair Year 11 – Work experience, visiting speakers Year 11/12 – Work experience

Professor Prue Huddleston Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick P.J.Huddleston@warwick.ac.uk Dr Anthony Mann Director of Policy and Research, Education and Employers Taskforce Anthony.Mann@educationandemployers.org