Configuración SNMP

Achieving lifelong employ- ability demands radical change in attitudes towards learning and development and in the systems of edu- cation and training. Firstly, collaboration between busi- ness and education in the development and delivery of the school curriculum must be specifically aimed at preparing young people for adult and working life. Secondly, initial formation must not only provide an ef fective foundation for continuing development but positively increase the commitment to independ- ent learning. Finally, every individual must have access to practical means by which to reflect on their achieve- ments and experiences, re- view their pr ogr ess and performance and plan their future development, with- out necessarily being de- pendent upon others for support.

CEDEFOP

“Education and training has, all too often, been used to express the divisions in society, rather than as a means by which to unite it in a common purpose.”

“Since the late-1980’s, the Rover Group has champi- oned a new vision for education partnership in the UK (…)”

“Perhaps the most impor- tant of Rover Group’s education initiatives has been the creation of Partnership Centres at each of the company’s major sites.”

“(…) although such employer interventions undoubtedly increase students’ awareness of the world of work, they remain at the margin of educational experi- ence(…)”

change. Therefore, if the workforce of the future is to be genuinely different to the workforce of the past, education and busi- ness must work together to help make it so. It will not happen otherwise. It can- not happen otherwise.

Education partnership can no longer be viewed as an optional activity for employ- ers, but a mainstream business necessity, driven by enlightened self-interest. It is also a vital means by which industry and commerce can communicate its vision, values and priorities to the next genera- tion. A company that demonstrates its commitment to education partnership and to lifelong learning not only presents a positive image to its customers, its sup- pliers, its employees and its sharehold- ers, but is also an enterprise that people are more likely to want to join than to leave.

Since the late-1980’s, the Rover Group has championed a new vision for education partnership in the UK, linked to the need for schools to provide the essential foun- dation for lifelong learning and to the work-related curriculum as a means of empowering young people to take greater responsibility for the realisation of their own potential.

For the Rover Group, education partner- ship is just as much a part of investing in the future as the billions of pounds spent on state-of-the-art technology and the de- velopment of new products. The partner- ship programme reflects a long-standing commitment to working with schools to enhance and enrich the curriculum and help prepare young people for the op- portunities, responsibilities and experi- ences of the world of work, raising levels of aspiration, expectation and achieve- ment.

Perhaps the most important of Rover Group’s education initiatives has been the creation of Partnership Centres at each of the company’s major sites. The industrial/ business workplace is not always an ideal learning environment in which to support the school curriculum and if schools are to deliver a broad, balanced, relevant, work-related curriculum for all young people, they need a ‘curriculum-related workplace’, geared specifically to achiev- ing planned educational outcomes.

Rover’s Partnership Centre concept seeks to address this need by creating dedicated facilities at the heart of each of the com- pany’s major sites, operated in conjunc- tion with the local educational commu- nity. Each Partnership Centre reflects the subtle differences that exist from area to area. They have developed in ways that are appropriate to the needs of the local schools and which exploit the opportu- nities presented by the operational activi- ties of the particular plant. Each provides a range of modules for students aged from 5 to 19, related to the National Curricu- lum at each Key Stage, with the active involvement of Rover associates as well as teachers and Partnership Centre staff. The Partnership Centres are powerful symbols of the company’s commitment to education, both for the workforce and the local community, and provide a natural meeting point for employees, teachers and students from which all can benefit. Pro- viding an opportunity for the very young- est students to experience learning in the midst of an efficient, high-technology car plant, the Partnership Centres actively encourage students to review, and where necessary revise, their perceptions of the working environment and develop more positive attitudes towards learning beyond school. In complete contrast to the ‘bolt- on extra’ approach to work-related aspects of the school curriculum, the Partnership Centres encourage young people to take for granted that some of their learning will naturally take place on an employer’s premises rather than in the classroom and utilisation has steadily increased, from 13,300 student days of curriculum activ- ity in 1991 to 16,380 in 1994.

With around a thousand pupils a year undertaking placements with Rover Group, work experience continues to play a major part in the on-going Education Partnership Programme. However, once again, the company has adopted a dis- tinctive approach, placing quality ahead of quantity and aiming to ensure that, wherever possible, the experience encour- ages students to manage their own learn- ing. For example, learning agreements have been introduced, setting out what each pupil will know, understand and be able to do on completion, determined partly by what has been negotiated with the school and partly as a result of dis- cussions with each individual.

CEDEFOP

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