Developing employability skills
alongside maths
Janice Richards
MEI
Jack Clark,
Chris Wallis,
and Connor Bell
Ravens Wood
School
Employability skills
• What are they?
• Who needs them?
• What’s it got to do with teaching maths?
Case study
• Coaching, mentoring and leadership at Ravens Wood School
Reflection, discussion, and sharing of ideas
In pairs…
In 1 minute:
• List 5 employability skills that could
be developed in school/college
• Identify one that is particularly well
facilitated by learning maths
What are employability skills?
Link to cbi booklet_Learning to grow.
Definition of employability skills
See page 32 of the booklet Learning to grow.
Who needs them?
STEMNET Employability
Skills Guide
Link to materials
Who needs employability skills?
Who needs employability skills?
…from
school
leavers
Source:
The CBI
Education
and Skills
Survey
2011
See the diagram exhibit 14 on page 19
of this document
“Over two thirds of employers (70%)
want to see the development of
employability skills among young
people at school and college made a
top priority – this does not require a
new qualification but rather
embedding the skills in the
curriculum, as the best schools and
colleges already do.”
Source: The CBI Education and Skills Survey 2011
…to graduates
“1 in 12 graduates
without work six
months after leaving
education and 40%
failing to get graduatecalibre posts more
than two years after
graduation.”
“Levels of employer satisfaction
with the employability skills of
graduates are higher than for
school and college leavers, but
there are still alarming
weaknesses in skills around
team working (20%) and
problem-solving (19%).”
“The government wants universities to better collaborate
with industry and made key recommendations to improve
graduate employability.”
What has this got to do with
teaching maths?
It may help to
engage
students
“Maths lessons are seen
as difficult, irrelevant
and boring by about a
third of teenagers…”
“Teenagers had clear
ideas about how maths
teaching could be
improved, with 54%
saying it should be
geared to more practical
scenarios.”
Link to school maths should be
more practical article.
It may be approved of by Ofsted
Mathematics: made to measure, Ofsted 2012:
It remains a concern that secondary pupils
seemed so readily to accept the view that
learning mathematics is important but dull. They
frequently told inspectors that in other subjects
they enjoyed regular collaboration on tasks in
pairs or groups and discussion of their ideas, yet
they often did not do so in their mathematics
lessons, or even expect to do so.
Could it even improve the
learning of maths?
Case study:
Ravens Wood School:
Coaching and mentoring
and
Leadership
programmes
Ravens Wood School
Mathematics Department
Leading by Example
Jack Clark
Chairman of the Sixth Form Leadership Group
with
Connor Bell and Chris Wallis
Sixth Form Leadership Group
Sixth Form Leadership Group 2013 - 2014
Taking Classes
Revision
Ma3
The Chairmen
Jack Jewell
2012 - 2013
Dan Jeremy
2013 - 2014
Jack Clark
2014 - 2015
Coaching and Mentoring
One to One Mentoring
Leading Lessons
ILM Level 2 Coaching and
Mentoring Accreditation
Key Characteristics
Active Listener
Honesty
Integrity
Organisational Skills
Teamwork
Leadership
Empathy
Passion
Ambition
Diversity of Mentoring
The Final Word from Jack
There is an inspiring culture of
peer mentoring and support, and
competition at the highest end of
the attainment spectrum that
continually raises the bar and
pushes the boundaries.
Jack Jewell, Chairman 2012 - 2013
Sutton Trust/EEF Pupil Premium Toolkit 2013
Intervention
Cost Rating
Strength of
Evidence
Average
Impact
Feedback
££
***
+ 8 months
Metacognition & selfregulation
££
****
+ 8 months
Peer tutoring
££
****
+ 6 months
Early Years intervention
£££££
****
+ 6 months
One to one tuition
££££
****
+ 5 months
Homework (secondary)
£
***
+ 5 months
Collaborative learning
£
****
+ 5 months
www://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit
Group discussion
1. On your own - Think of 2 ways in which
you already develop employability skills
in your lessons (2 mins)
2. Working in pairs, identify 2 new ways in
which you could do this. (5 mins)
3. Still in pairs - How do you think these
might help to improve maths learning?
(5 mins)
Group discussion: New
approaches
Employability skills
• What are they?
• Who needs them?
• What’s it got to do with teaching maths?
Case study
• Coaching, mentoring and leadership at Ravens Wood School
Reflection, discussion, and sharing of ideas
Some ideas to take away
• Class discussions https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/39312
• Communication skills - Property Tycoon activity
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Extra-CurricularProperty-Tycoon-6028217/
• Developing team-working skills
http://nrich.maths.org/6933
• ILM Coaching and Mentoring level 2 Award for Young
Learners:
https://www.i-lm.com/~/media/ILM%20Website/Documents/Information%20f
or%20centres/Retired%20VRQs%20and%20iQUALs/Qual_S
pec_L2_Award_in_Mentoring_for_YL_Oct_2011%20pdf.ashx
Any questions?
Developing maths skills through
work experience
Work experience placements can help students to see the
relevance of maths to their futures. This can be particularly
motivating for them.
The practical experience of
applying maths in the workplace
can also help to strengthen their
mathematical skills.
MEI, funded by the DfE and
with help from AELP, has
produced two guides to support
and encourage this.
The providers’ guide
Key content
• Getting employers on board and
supporting them.
• Encouraging your students
• Contextualised teaching and
learning
• Putting it into practice
The employers’ guide
Key content
• Getting employers on board
• What are Study Programmes
and Traineeships?
• What sort of maths?
• How to go about it
• Useful questions
• Where can they get support?
Further details
• Both guides and a recording of a webinar that
introduces them, are available on the MEI website at
www.mei.org.uk under Teachers \ Study
Programmes
• The employers’ guide is also available separately at:
under Employers \ Work Experience
• Contact Janice Richards at MEI:
janice.richards@mei.org.uk