by Amy Ridley, School Liaison Manager, Luminate Education Group
IMPROVED CAREER AWARENESS
Preparing young people for success involves more than just classroom education. Often, it’s the experiences beyond the whiteboard that spark intellectual curiosity.
Despite most students possessing an awareness of emerging specialisms, such as game development and artificial intelligence (AI), they often lack an understanding of the potential these industries have to offer.
School liaison teams deliver career-based presentations in primary and secondary schools to raise awareness of these opportunities, using immersive activities and tailored advice to empower young people to make informed choices about their future.
Whether it’s to small groups, assemblies or at parents’ events, this form of outreach initiates a dialogue around further and higher education options, allowing common questions to be answered and prevailing myths surrounding certain qualifications to be dispelled.
These activities also enable schools and sixth forms to expose their pupils to the full spectrum of educational opportunities available, guiding those who are often still finalising their next steps towards pathways they could pursue in the future.
The Salt & Pepper robots are a popular feature in school liaison visits
A digital taster day at Leeds City College’s Printworks Campus
TAILORED SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
To bridge the gap between school and further education, we organise curriculum experience days with college departments. As well as enhancing the learning experience, these sessions aim to shed light on lesser known or in-demand sectors, such as digital.
Following visits to Leeds City Academy, Beckfield Primary, Farnley Academy and Guiseley School, students attended a digital marketing and AI masterclass hosted by the Apprenticeships and Digital Commercial team at Leeds City College Printworks Campus.
Held in the college’s Coptrz technology suite, the session enabled students to learn different industry techniques, such as conducting keyword research and using AI caption generators.
We also work with teaching teams to keep students and parents aware of other enrichment activities – for example, bespoke departmental tours or fact-finding sessions with employers – connecting students to wider opportunities.
INCREASED ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT
School liaison teams also help encourage those pupils at risk of becoming disengaged to continue their education.
Outreach with secondary schools can create a growing interest amongst young people in using education to build relevant work experience. To direct students towards these opportunities, our sessions now incorporate useful insight on in-demand skills, as well as highlighting the technical pathways that develop them, such as T Levels and apprenticeships.
However, barriers to educational progress come in many forms, making it crucial for pupils to have access to a range of personalised support. This might be in the form of transition talks preparing students for the shift to college, or mock admissions interviews that instil confidence for the real thing.
Each officer works with a designated school to ensure a constant flow of communication between the liaison team and school teachers. This approach allows us to recommend tailored support on a case-by-case basis, particularly for students with additional needs and who would benefit from working with our specialist teams.
The more we collaborate with schools to offer students access to these activities, the more awareness we create for the opportunities available to pupils when they leave school – opportunities that may have otherwise been out of reach.
Amy Ridley is School Liaison Manager at Luminate Education Group, a collective of education providers based in Yorkshire that includes Leeds City College.
