About us and what we do:

Somerset Education Business Partnership (EBP), a business unit of Connect South West Ltd, operates at the interface between business and education. One of our principal aims is to develop mutually beneficial partnerships between business and education that result in personal and professional development opportunities for young people, teachers and people in businesses.

The EBP believes that its work with young people is greatly enhanced when we ‘Bring Business Expertise into Learning’. The contribution of employers and employees can help young people develop the skills, qualities and attitudes sought by employers and to help them make informed decisions about their future education, training and employment.

Somerset EBP works predominantly with young people aged 14 -19 attending the 30 maintained secondary schools and five FE colleges across the county. We also work with middle and primary schools to some degree. To support the activities we organise in schools and the Work Experience we monitor, we have a database of over 4000 Somerset businesses. We are always seeking support from local businesses for programmes in schools and to provide Work Experience placements.

How you and your company can get involved:

Support the school curriculum

• Visit a school or college and talk about your business
• Engage with your local school in developing the curriculum for the new Diplomas
• Set students a real life project based on your business
• Invite students to your business as part of their curriculum
• Mentor a student, teacher or lecturer, face to face or by e-mail
• Speak at a student conference on work related learning

Contribute to Enterprise activity in your local school

• Support students on one of the events we organise for schools
• Become a Science & Engineering Ambassador (SEA)
• Work with us to set an enterprise challenge and judge the outcomes
• Take part in an industry day
• Be an ‘entrepreneur in residence’

Provide Insights into the World of Work

• Give a student a mock interview in school
• Visit a school or college and talk about your career/business
• Provide a week or two weeks work experience to a young person
• Provide a regular extended work experience placement of one or two days a week
• Invite teachers and lecturers, individually or as a group, into your business to find out what goes on there so that they can update their teaching

Engage with Schools

• Join your local school’s Education Business Partnership
• Become a school governor
• Help a school with its community links

What’s in it for you? – Opportunities to

• Shape the employability skills of young people – your future workforce
• Help to build a curriculum that meets local as well as national needs
• Develop your understanding of what is happening in education today
• Improve your own and your employees’ skills in presenting to, assessing, supporting and encouraging people individually and when working in teams
• Promote your industry and raise your profile in the local community

Business people who work with us tell us that they get a real ‘feel good factor’ from supporting the activities listed in our Portfolio. To find out more, click on the link.

We look forward to hearing from you and would be pleased to visit you to discuss how you could become involved, so please use the Contact Us link. When phoning, ask for Emma McCombie for Work Experience queries or Roy Pumfrey for all other activities.