Young people's punctuality improves with business dress, according to further education college

College seeks business-dress sponsor

Lewisham College, the further education college in south-east London, and Edge, the educational foundation devoted to raising the status of vocational and practical learning, today announced that they are looking for a sponsor to help provide Lewisham College's business students with suits - in order to help improve punctuality!

A recent survey conducted for Edge by YouGov indicated that lack of awareness of the importance of timekeeping amongst young people was one of the greatest frustrations for potential employers. Lewisham College is tackling this by providing students not only with an academic education and practical skills but, for example, an awareness of the importance of punctuality by placing significant emphasis on arriving on time to lectures, and that if they don't they are simply not admitted after a certain time has elapsed.

A phenomenon noticed by the college was that students studying construction and nail and beauty therapy were rarely late for lectures. However, their colleagues studying business topics were rarely on time! A further phenomenon became apparent though when funds became available to purchase suits for those on business courses. Once 'suited and booted', students' timekeeping improved dramatically.

Ruth Silver, principal at Lewisham College, said: "Buying the suits made an amazing improvement in timekeeping. I think that the students saw themselves in a different light, as more confident people who had something to achieve, not just students having to endure courses. It's a great example of the positive effect of bringing something of the workplace and its demands into the classroom; practical learning is absolutely the way to go in education.

"However, we can't afford to fund further purchases of suits so we're looking for a sponsor to help. The sponsor would be someone who has concerns about how we can help provide young people be much better prepared for the workplace and wants to find an appropriate and practical way to help make this happen."

Garry Hawkes, chairman of Edge, said: "Edge is dedicated to forcing a positive change in the quality of vocational and practical learning in the UK and ensuring that this route to great careers is not seen as second best to academic learning and places at university.

"We have put our money where our mouth is and invested in Lewisham College's bid to develop a qualification that will enable people with skills and real workplace experience to qualify more easily as teachers and pass on their skills and workplace knowledge to young people. With Lewisham we're asking that someone else helps us give the men and women of tomorrow's workplace a better chance of success through an extraordinarily simple initiative, the business suit!"

Lewisham College is a further-education college that aims to be 'more than a College, offering more than a qualification'. It delivers this through partnerships with employers, community organisations and other educational institutions. These partnerships have allowed the college to develop a range of initiatives that extend learning out into the community, benefiting students and local employers.

Edge is dedicated to raising the profile of vocational and practical learning. It wants educational standards raised through applying practical experience to learning and providing opportunities to excel through vocational, as well as academic, studies. Edge believes that this will deliver real benefits to the current employment landscape.

ENDS

For further details, contact:

Suzy Insley, Catalysis Communications on

020 7101 7311 or email edgepressoffice@catalysis.co.uk