UK Employability Day Passes Without a Hitch

Yesterday marked the fourth annual UK Employability Day and Waltham Forest College joins a host of organisations to emphasise the challenges surrounding employability in the UK.

Employability Day is the UK’s largest celebration for organisations supporting local people to gain, sustain and progress in work.

Coordinated by the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), hundreds of businesses, charities and public bodies will throw open their doors to raise awareness about how they support local people.

ABC Note: The Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) is the membership body for the employment support sector.  Established in 2005, we campaign for and support the delivery of ever better services for the nation's jobseekers and learners.  

Tom Barden works as a Marketing Officer at Waltham Forest College. This is what Tom had to say:

The biggest challenge for any education provider is ensuring students build the necessary skills they need for employment. These skills aren’t exclusively based on getting the best grades, but other practical, social and mental skills that will shape their ability to thrive in the working world.

Over the last few years there has been a major shift in the jobs on offer. We have seen how volatile the retail sector has become through the collapse of large stores and chains in the wake of digital giants.

It is not possible to train every young person to find jobs that are secure for the future. However, it is possible to provide them with the entrepreneurial and problem-solving abilities to go into vulnerable industries and push for greater innovation to ensure the sector evolves and thrives in this digital era.

Over the last few years, Waltham Forest College has taken ever increasing strides in developing partnerships and projects with all levels of the community and businesses to support students to build key employability skills.

One such project was the Stonebridge Lock Clean Up where students took on the task of cleaning a stretch of local waterway, making it safer for the community and wildlife. This project was valuable as it taught students social and environmental skills that are essential when working in an increasingly environmentally conscious economy.

There are also larger projects, such as Digital Futures, a 2 week intensive skills training course funded by the Mayor’s Digital Talent Programme and the European Social Fund (ESF).

The project aims to provide digital skills training and employment opportunities to London residents aged 16-24 who are no longer in the education system, not working or being trained for work, or at risk of becoming a NEET.

Digital Futures covers skills’ areas such as digital landscaping, cyber security, website design, introductions to coding, understanding analytics and training in various software applications - all key skills to take forward into further education or employment.

Half the battle with employability is making students aware of the opportunities that exist. There is no value training people for jobs they have never heard of or considered.

That is why at Waltham Forest College we build partnerships to get students out of college and into the work environment. In February this year, Engineering students were given the opportunity to visit a National Grid gasholder site for a live demo of a demolition site.

There are a lot of routes that an Engineering course can take, so showcasing some of the lesser known options is a good way to diversify skills and interests in the sector.

Waltham Forest College has also developed partnerships with schemes like Erasmus Plus to deliver valuable work experience opportunities in Spain and Portugal.

During the 4 week programme students are encouraged to embrace the language and culture of the cities they worked in, evidenced by this short vlog made by 2 of our travel & tourism students in Seville this year.

By travelling abroad for work experience students show they have independence, confidence and ambition – all vital attributes and skills to take into the workplace. Skills that might just allow them to stand out against other candidates.

It is through these opportunities, and others like them, that Waltham Forest College is able to support all our students to raise their employability skills, boost their confidence and get ready for the productive, valuable and innovative work of the future.

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ERSA's members deliver, or have an interest in the delivery, of the whole spectrum of employment related services. The scope of their collective reach includes skills provision, self-employment, offender related services, youth employment services, welfare reform and disability-related issues, as well as the design and delivery of employment programmes, however they are funded or commissioned.

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