An effective partnership develops an Advanced Apprenticeship scheme with Real World learning and excellent progression routes.
Batley Girls’ High School in collaboration with Batley Business and Enterprise Centre and North Kirklees FE College has developed a simple but incredibly effective Advanced Apprenticeship scheme in ICT as a model that any school could employ and use for any Apprenticeship appropriate to a school- e.g. customer service, PE, librarianship, science technician, accountancy. It is an example of an effective partnership scheme and it has opened up new post-16 routes and a progression into HE for young people who would not have chosen the traditional A level route. As such, the scheme is totally in tune with the 14-19 curriculum reforms.
The girls’ and the boys’ school each took on two Advanced ICT Apprentices in an employed capacity. Although recruited in Year 11 in the January of their final year, they were not taken on as 6th formers, but as employees of the school. They were paid £85 per week (now £95) and became part of the ICT team. They were inducted as new employees and subject to the same procedures of any junior employee. They are line managed by the Chief ICT Technician at the school who acts as both a line manager and a workplace mentor.
Eighteen months after starting in August 2007 both schools have highly skilled and valuable ICT employees and the schools swap the Apprentices across both sites and share them with their primary feeder schools. They spend 3.5- 4 days a week in school and 1- 1.5 days at the local FE College in Dewsbury. (This supports Step 5 - Real world learning.)
North Kirklees College draws down the funding for the Apprentices and provides them with the Technical Certificate, the NVQ theory and Key Skills. It also sends assessors and verifiers into the schools to assess their competence on the job. The school and the college liaise closely to ensure that the Apprentices are directed to tasks that reflect the units that they are doing at college.
The programme is now in its fourth year and all Apprentices have gone on to degree courses or directly into ICT employment. (This supports Step 5 - Excellent progression routes.) They have become valuable employees and show the potential that schools have as both employers and educators.