2013-06-19T04:26:49-04:00 Alice Barnard http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=alice-barnard Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Alice Barnard Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2817503 2013-03-06T06:57:57-05:00 2013-05-06T05:12:01-04:00

Alice Barnard http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-barnard/
In terms of settling on a career, making decisions invariably involves a process of trial and error - of determining what sort of job they are suited to and seeking out as much information as possible about available opportunities.

In order to make an informed decision, it's essential that young people receive qualified advice and have access to resources to help them understand the full extent of the options available to them.

Given the state of the current economic climate and the increasing saturation of Britain's job market, getting good advice early on in the job-seeking process has never been so important.

The biggest difficulty for today's youth remains ensuring they have the necessary skills demanded by the 21st Century workplace, as well as the confidence and can-do attitude that makes them stand out from the crowd.

By engaging with potential employers and making the most of the chance to gain real, hands-on business experience, young people not only improve their skillset but also get the opportunity to demonstrate they have a possible future at a company.

As such, getting work experience at a young age continues to be a good way for young people to improve their employability.

Monday saw the launch of this year's National Careers Week, which celebrates the range of careers guidance and resources available in schools and colleges across the UK.

This long-running initiative aims to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar, in order to help young people leaving education enter the working world.

Schools and colleges from across the country have coordinated events that will connect students with prospective employers as well as engage them with the process of deciding their career options.

For students, being able to attend workshops and careers fairs provides an opportunity to improve their chances of securing employment when the time comes. For employers, taking part allows access to an army of potential recruits.

Events like National Careers Week inspire young people to actively seek out opportunities. This is something that we at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy applaud and encourage.

Our work focuses on training and motivating young people to unleash their entrepreneurial talent and realise their potential. We offer encouragement and support to individuals and try to empower them with the confidence to take informed risks, learn through experience and ultimately become more employable.

The Academy was set up with a mission to inspire Britain's youth and I am passionate about continuing to make this a reality.

Central to our ethos is giving students hands-on business experience through a learning-by-doing curriculum and enabling young people to have real life experience of working in a business environment through enterprise-focused BTECs, Apprenticeships and work-placements.

We've found that these schemes are the best way of ensuring our students are able to enter the job-market ready to work, with the experience and skills they learn invariably resulting in positive starts to their careers.

The results have proved to be good news for employers, which is why we're supported by over 100 leading businesses across the UK.

For any business owner, building a base of brilliant employees is crucial for the fortune of their enterprise. Without a solid group of skilled workers that can be relied upon to get the best results, making a success of their company will prove difficult.

Employers are always on the look out for something in their new recruits that marks them out for bigger things, for an ambition and vision that will shape and drive their company forward.

In this time of high youth unemployment, there has never been a bigger need to do all we can to ensure that the young people of today are as prepared for the working world as they can be.

Initiatives like National Careers Week not only get students thinking about career options, they motivate and inspire a desire for self-enhancement and improvement. This needs to be celebrated.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2616722 2013-02-04T13:34:53-05:00 2013-04-06T05:12:01-04:00

Alice Barnard http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-barnard/
However, despite the doom and gloom, there are countless reasons to be optimistic about the future - and I for one am extremely positive about what opportunities lie ahead.

With 2013 now well underway, I believe Britain should make this the year for growth and the year for opportunity.

If the celebrations of last summer taught us anything, it's that we are extremely fortunate to live in one of the greatest nations on earth. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, followed by the London Games were a national celebration of what it means to be British and reminded many of us what our country had achieved on the global stage.

But celebrations such as these should not stop there. We should encourage the celebration of success to inspire young people to achieve great things.

As a nation, we are inherently afraid of failure, while in America, people are encouraged to take risks. This is the nature of an entrepreneur, a fearless, ambitious and passionate risk taker, and I believe that we need to create more people of this nature to think big and be ambitious.

At the Peter Jones Foundation, our network of Peter Jones Enterprise Academies are aiming to do just that - to unlock the hidden potential among young people, so that they can realise their dreams and ultimately go for it in business.

This month, we are delighted to welcome His Royal Highness, the Duke of York KG as patron of the Peter Jones Foundation. For the Foundation - and for the Academies in particular - this is hugely exciting and takes our mission to greater heights. With the help of His Royal Highness, we want to celebrate the passion and entrepreneurial potential of young people in the UK, by providing students with real hands-on business skills and the confidence to become self-starters.

Because in today's tough climate, there has never been greater need for young people to take their own initiative and to think about starting up their own business.

Further Education has a crucial role to play. Through FE colleges, we are able to reach out to those students who want to learn about business in a practical, hands-on way, but who had not previously been given the opportunity to do so.

Our BTEC courses are specifically designed to prepare young people for the 21st Century workplace so that they can have the best possible chance of future success.

And with university tuition fees at such high levels, we want to show students that there are alternative routes to secure a successful career.

Degrees, while valuable for certain careers, are not the only path to take, and in many cases serve as a hindrance, leaving students thousands of pounds in debt and no closer to their dream job than when they began the course.

As university applications closed last month, we also learnt that submissions were down 6.6 per cent last year - suggesting that young people are already adjusting their behavior and looking for alternative paths.

The world is changing and Britain's economy is shifting. In January, two of Britain's biggest high street chains - HMV and Blockbuster - went into administration after they were unable to adapt to the changing retail landscape. What's clear is that in today's world, businesses need 'intrapreneurs', employees with the passion, innovation and drive to help them thrive and adapt to the changing landscape.

It is young people that are at the forefront of this change as they will lead this country in generations to come. So let's celebrate their passions, let's inspire their dreams and let's show them they can achieve whatever they want.

Let's make this year count.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1514972 2012-05-14T19:00:00-04:00 2012-07-14T05:12:04-04:00

Alice Barnard http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-barnard/
Apprenticeships are just as relevant and valuable for the next generation. Here's why:

First, we have more than a million 16- to 24-year-olds out of work in this country - more than at any time since records began in 1992. Creating vital employment opportunities for the 'missing million' needs to be a national priority.

Second, the UK lags way behind its competitor economies when it comes to the number of highly-skilled employees and innovation activity. We desperately need to build an economy that equips young people with cutting-edge, industry-relevant business skills.

High-quality, knowledge-based apprenticeships can kick-start careers. They can also generate sustainable economic growth: the National Audit Office found that every £1 spent on Apprenticeships generates £18 for the economy. A motivated and skilled workforce is essential for the health of the nation.

To this end, we are proud to be developing a Level 5 Higher Apprenticeship in Innovation and Growth. At the end of last year, the Peter Jones Foundation was awarded a round-one grant from the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) to research, develop and implement an Apprenticeship that offers young people a new, quality-assured route into a business career. This is about giving students real, on-the-job training in areas such as business development and project management, and fast-tracking them into decent jobs with promising progression prospects.

We have also developed and piloted a unique Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Enterprise at the Churchgate Academy's new training facility in the centre of Manchester. We are in the process of expanding this across our UK network of colleges, with a full roll-out planned for the start of term in September.

The government, meanwhile, has raised the bar on apprenticeship standards. Earlier this month, Skills Minister John Hayes announced that, from August, apprenticeships for all age groups must run for a minimum of 12 months. The government is also offering up to 40,000 apprenticeship grants to SMEs that recruit their first apprentice in the 16-to-24-year-old bracket. As prime minister David Cameron put it: "Apprenticeships are good for people who want to get ahead, good for business and good for the country."

To tackle the problem of youth unemployment in a significant way, we need to encourage more young people to catch the enterprise and innovation bug and help them develop new skills in the workplace. Given the rising costs of degrees, here is a credible alternative to a university education, offering an earn-while-you-learn route into work.

We, and our network of Peter Jones Enterprise Academies and Further and Higher Education partners, are currently working alongside the likes of CFA, SFEDI and Pearson to develop our Level 5 Apprenticeship framework.

We're keen to encourage more employers of all shapes and sizes to get involved and help us develop and deliver our Level 3 and 5 frameworks.

This is your chance to nurture the country's young talent.

Email us at apprenticeships@pjea.org ]]>