The City of Cardiff Council has staged the first in a series of events to bring Cardiff’s leading businesses and the city’s schools together to forge closer links and make the difference to equip the city’s students with the right skills to meet demand in the local economy.
A total of 15 businesses and ten high schools gathered at the County Hall event, joined by Nigel Roberts, Chairman of the Cardiff Business Council and Louise Harris, founder and Director at the Big Learning Company. As well as forging links to ensure education in the city fits the needs of a growing economy, the role local businesses can play in helping the leadership and Governance in Cardiff schools was also discussed. The City Council is looking to strengthen school governance and anticipates that the business community will be integral in meeting this objective.
Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, Cllr Julia Magill said: “Strong links between schools and businesses in the local economy are crucial in creating opportunities for young people to fulfil their potential. Events like this show that we are working in partnership to make the difference in Cardiff, ensuring that our children and young people leave education with the right skills to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the city. We are making sure that those who create the demand for skills in the city are working with those that influence the supply.
The intention is to further develop a strong and lasting partnership that complements a number of other initiatives we have introduced to benefit Cardiff students entering the jobs market – including Cardiff Start which engages teachers in the technology sector and the world of computer coding and our Cardiff Jobs Market factsheets sent to all secondary schools and careers advisors so that schools know the knowledge, skills and attributes that employers are looking for.”
An additional 40,000 jobs are expected to be created in Cardiff over the long-term, the majority coming from the financial and technology sectors. Matching skills to this emerging jobs market is key to bringing sustainable growth to the city.
The businesses that attended the first partnership event ranged from multinational companies with a presence in Cardiff to the city’s small and medium sized enterprises. They came from a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, technology, financial and legal.
Nigel Roberts, Chairman of the Cardiff Business Council said: “I warmly welcome the partnership between education and business in Cardiff. Such links are of vital importance and we are already starting to see closer ties in action. For example, my company is linking with Eastern High to develop skills and work with the school’s leadership team and Governors. From the partnership event the businesses and schools have signed pledges to continue working together, ensuring that this is a long-term initiative which will deliver for the city’s young people year after year.”
Next steps will include businesses adopting schools to formally recognise partnership links. The second event is planned for the autumn, giving those schools and businesses that could not come to the first meeting a chance to get involved.
