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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services - 636923 

Items
No. Item

34.

Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

Minutes:

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

 

35.

Minutes. pdf icon PDF 119 KB

To approve and sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

Minutes:

Resolved that the minutes of the Education & Skills Policy Development & Delivery Committee held on 13 December 2017 be approved as a correct record.

 

 

36.

STEM Subjects/Impact of City Deal. (Emma Pike - Careers Wales)

Minutes:

Emma Pike provided a verbal presentation outlining the ongoing work that Careers Wales carry out, which is much more than the just careers advice.

 

She reported that every comprehensive school has a careers advisor placed in the school, whose main aims include the prioritising of the avoidance of NEETs, giving advice on the labour market and the potential of the city deal on the local job market and skills needed, importance of STEM subjects and the promotion of employer engagement.

 

She referred to the recent development relating to the use of Webinars(web based training) by Careers Wales to deliver LMI and employer engagement activity electronically to schools. She highlighted that STEM topics are a priority and 7 webinars in IT / Heath sciences have already been planned for this year. She referred to the differing level of engagement from schools to date on this new way of working and indicated she would inform the Chief Education Officer on the take up of the Webinars by schools.

 

She detailed the need for careers and the world of work activity to be more embedded across the curriculum and across school provision, with more emphasis on subject provision and linking subjects to future employment and skills.  CW supports schools in doing this via an internal audit and development plan. She indicated that Careers Wales are in the process of producing a suite of resources to roll out for schools to use at key stage 3 which will be available for teachers to deliver.

 

She outlined and showed a preview of a power point presentation that has been prepared for young people in conjunction with the above, and indicated that she can share the final version with the Committee when completed.

 

Members and Officers discussed the issues raised during the presentation and asked questions and queries of Emma, who responded accordingly. Issues raised during the discussion included the need to make young people more aware of salaries and their earning potential of being in employment, need to develop adult learning champions/mentors/role models for young people to aspire too, need to develop business ambassador schemes for schools to get more involved with employers, more accurate labour market information required, links with the RLSP.

 

Emma discussed the launch of WG’s new Education Business Exchange which is a Pan Wales database which holds employers that have offered to work with schools along with the list of activities they are prepared to offer, and the subject areas they can support. This will start to be rolled out to Swansea schools from March onwards. Emma offered to update the group at a future meeting on this area of work specifically.

 

All schools are encouraged to achieve the Quality Mark accreditation for effective delivery of the careers and the world of work framework. Currently 6 school careers co-ordinators have also achieved the CDI (careers development institute) award for leadership and management  which CW will look to roll out to all schools.

 

The Chair thanks Emma for her presentation.

 

 

37.

How Can the Council Use its Resources and Capacity to Improve the Offer to Young People. (Discussion)

Minutes:

Chris Sivers referred to and outlined the work being currently undertaken around the Learning City and Regional Learning Partnership Board.

 

She indicated that a local group is being developed to feed into the regional board which will enable a more clear and local focus for Swansea to be presented, this will reflect on the issues identified during discussions by the council, schools, universities and colleges, particularly with the City Deal in mind.

 

The need to raise the profile and promote the concept of “learning” and raise aspirations for learning/employment prospects going forward was discussed, this includes both young people and adult learning.

 

The possibility of a yearly “Learning Festival” was outlined and discussed, this could involve the widespread promotion of “learning” and involve many different facets of the authority such as schools, adult learning, museums, libraries etc.

 

 

 

 

 

38.

Workplan 2017/2018. pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Minutes:

The Chair reported further to the published work plan and indicated that the next meeting will receive an update on the progress of the report on the City Deal Skills that went to Cabinet in December.

 

The Chair and Chris Sivers then outlined a proposal for Members of the Committee to investigate examples of good ideas/best practice around STEM subjects, gender take up, successful school/business mentoring schemes from other local authorities and report back to future meetings.

 

Members of the Committee welcomed the proposal.

 

The Chief Education Officer indicated he would provide the necessary WJEC figures to the Committee, and liaise with Mark Jones, Principal of Gower College to attend a future meeting to outline his view on the issues around STEM subjects.