Topics

School-business partnership

In 2002 the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) formed the Business and Industry School to Work Alliance (BISWA) with the  Enterprise and Career Education Foundation (ECEF) to provide for employer engagement with the Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) New Framework for Vocational Education and Training in School, to influence key stakeholder groups towards a positive perception of VET in school activities, and to model best practice, collaborative and strategic alliances. In this context, ACCI launched a survey to gather information to help formulate a strategic partnership between industry and the education sector.

• Recognizes the importance of school-business linkages to provide students with relevant industry skills;
• Recognizes the importance of on-the-job training for acquisition of skills;
• Identifies enterprise education as an area for partnerships across a range of organizations.

Australia

Career guidance

Apprenticeship

Long-term youth unemployment is considered to be a serious problem by the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ). An innovative Job Coaching project for long-term unemployed youth aims at giving youth aged between 15 and 25 a chance to get a job or, alternatively, access to education. It provides for a personal coach who helps the adolescent deal with relevant government authorities (i.e. the Public Employment Service), possible future employers and, finally, encourages them to retain a job or work placement. The coaches are in permanent personal contact with the young people. They contact suitable employers and accompany young people to job-interviews.

• Involves the employers' organization (WKÖ) and Public Employment Service, thereby bridging supply and demand; 
• Combines training on core skills for employability, personal coaching and job placement;
• Is co-funded by the employers' organization and the Public Employment Service.

Austria

Career guidance

In 2001 the Federation of Austrian Industry started the project Industry turns female. A website was created to motivate young girls to undertake a technical-oriented education that leads to a career in industry. Since the career path is decided quite early in the school system, the initiative targets girls aged 12 to 14. The initiative tries to cover all educational and vocational institutions (apprenticeships, technical colleges, polytechnics and universities).

• Recognizes that in order to reach the target group, programmes need to be geared to the aspirations of youth;           
• Targets girls at an appropriate age in the career decision cycle;
• Targets key stakeholders in the process, not just the recipients.

Austria

Vocational training

The main objective of this initiative supported by Hennes & Mauritz is to train disadvantaged youth (aged 17 and older) in order to help them find jobs as skilled workers in the clothing industry, the biggest and most important industry in Bangladesh but one that has faced child labour problems in the past. Through this initiative, youth are involved in vocational education and, after successful completion of the training, are offered employment at H&M suppliers.

• Recognizes that the reintegration of child labourers in the vocational education system requires a combination of services, programmes, institutions and stakeholders; 
• Offers guaranteed employment after successful completion of training; 
• Has a prominent focus on young women.

Bangladesh

Vocational training

Life skills training  

Work experience

The objective of the Network, established in 1995, is to promote and support its member insertion enterprises in their effort to facilitate social and labour market inclusion of marginalized people, in particular youth. Services offered to member enterprises focus on: exchange of information, representation vis-à-vis policy and governmental instances, promotion of insertion enterprises, training of permanent staff, networking among insertion enterprises and support to the development of insertion enterprises.

• Combines holistic training (i.e. life, vocational and social skills) for disadvantaged and marginalized youth, while supporting and accompanying them in their professional and social integration;
• Includes follow-up once the youth has finished the programme and is hired by an enterprise;
• Is based on partnerships with a number of partners, including grassroots community organizations as well as social, private and public sectors.

Canada - Quebec

Apprenticeship

The Deutsche Bahn is the German privatized national railroad company and one of the biggest providers of apprenticeships in Germany with about 8,200 placements. An initiative called Chance Pluswas started in 2004 by DB in cooperation with other German-based companies. The programme was created as a follow-up to the Vocational Education and Training Pact, which was signed in 2004 between the German government and employers' organizations.

• Second chance programme which combines employers' commitment to workplace experience with further training;
• Targets young people who cannot find an apprenticeship placement or a job after graduation due to a poor academic record or insufficient core work skills;
• Recognizes the importance of core work skills for employability;
• Provides support to participants throughout the programme.

Germany

Vocational training

The German BP Foundation was founded in 1998 as an initiative aimed at combating youth unemployment. The objective of the Foundation is the promotion of youth employment, especially through the active support of occupational qualification, retraining, social support and mentoring of unemployed young people. The Foundation has funds of 5.5 million euros and currently supports projects worth 200 000 euros.

• Recognizes the importance of formal qualifications; 
• Introduces core work skills.

Germany

Apprenticeship

In 2006 the German Confederation of Employers' Associations (BDA) compiled a 58-page report on activities taken by employers’ organizations to combat youth unemployment. The purpose of this initiative was to disseminate information in support of the aims of the National Pact on Vocational and Educational Training between the German government and employers' organizations.

• Takes stock of a wide range of activities undertaken by German employers to tackle youth employment problems;
• Has helped strengthen employers' commitment to the National Pact on Vocational Education and Training.

Germany

School-business partnership

The federal working group SCHULEWIRTSCHAFT is a network of schools and enterprises. Since 1965 the initiative has coordinated the activities of working groups, which are locally organized within the federal states of Germany ; it promotes an exchange of information and experience through a lively dialogue between the two groups. The chair of the initiative is shared by a representative of academia and business.

• Provides for a continuous dialogue between business and the education system;
• Working groups are locally organized within the federal states of Germany .

Germany

Apprenticeship

Former child labourers are selected to take part in a three-month apprenticeship programme organized by the ILO through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), in collaboration with Apindo, the Indonesian Employers’ Association. Astra Honda, food manufacturing company Bogasari and garment producer UNITEX are Apindo participating members.

• Offers short-term apprenticeship programme targeting former child labourers;              
• Includes intensive training on core work skills;
• Involves employers' organizations and selected member companies;
• Makes available financial and in-kind contributions by companies after the apprenticeship programme.

Indonesia

Vocational training

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) was established in 1990 to bring worldwide resources to young people in need. IYF works with hundreds of companies, foundations, and civil society organizations to strengthen and "scale up" existing youth employment programmes that are making a positive and lasting difference in young lives.

• Multi-stakeholder initiative;
• Focuses on training on core work skills and strengthening youth leadership;
• Learning from the local level, brings best practices to the international level/network.

International

Apprenticeship

The Youth Career Initiative (YCI) is a six-month programme that mobilizes the human, financial and technical resources of the hotel industry in order to provide young people in developing countries with valuable life and vocational skills, which would be difficult to acquire elsewhere.

• Combines life skills with vocational training;
• Combines class-based training with training in the work environment;
• Cross-sector partnership approach helps ensure sustainability; 
• Training is formally recognized with certification.

International

Vocational training  

Career guidance

HEART is a National Training Agency, which gives students a chance to extend their education through skills training by working with local businesses. HEART tries to match skills that students acquire in school with the needs of the labour market.

• Delivers training in different settings;
• Offers certification to international standards;
• Facilitates job search through IT uses;
• Offers transition management services for individuals.      

Jamaica

Vocational training 

Job placement 

Entra 21 works to improve the employability of disadvantaged Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) youth (aged 16-29) by helping them gain information and communication technology (ICT) skills through internships, job training, mentoring, job networking and job placement.

• Provides IT and life skills training for disadvantaged youth;
• Uses a clear strategy for  job placement that goes beyond technical skills training;
• Provides grants to participating projects (funds come from IADB/MIF, USAID and private sector).

Latin America, The Caribbean

Vocational training

The project objective is to establish and disseminate a model where employees’ and employers’ organizations are able to actively participate and contribute to the vocational education and training system. The target group are unemployed young people in Ankara (especially long- term unemployed and immigrants).

• Workers and employers partnership to make vocational education and training more applicable to world of work;
• Provides certification for the training;
• Assists with job search upon completing of training.

Turkey

School-business partnership

The objective of the survey Companies and Classrooms, conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Wales , is to identify businesses that operate innovative schemes and programmes with schools and colleges.

• Brings together different education-business linkage schemes to maximize schools’ access to companies and mentors;
• Includes best practice examples on work experience.

United Kingdom

Work experience

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) undertook research to gather evidence that would help employers provide young people with meaningful work experience placements. The time that students spend during their job placements should be efficiently used as it is an opportunity for students to learn and use general competencies needed in the world of work. This report aims at helping employers and students to improve the impact of employability training during the work placement.

• Includes suggestions for employers on how to build employability development into work experience programmes;
• Includes a checklist that students can use to identify competencies that might be important at work, to keep a record of tasks undertaken during a work experience programme and to rate their own abilities.

United Kingdom

Apprenticeship

Johnson & Johnson established the Bridge to Employment (BTE) to help young people build solid futures by introducing them to a broad array of careers in health care. The idea is to demonstrate to students through real-world experiences that learning can be meaningful, engaging and relevant to their future. By fostering long-term partnerships among businesses, educators, community-based organizations and parents, BTE helps prepare young people to meet the challenges and requirements of careers in the health care industry.

• Recognizes and addresses the difficulties of school to work transition;
• Combines work experience with vocational training;
• Is implemented through a multi-stakeholder approach;
• Builds parental involvement into the programme.

United States and Ireland