FUTURE TALENTED Spring Term 2019 - Issue 2 | Page 26

Gatsby Benchmarks
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Consistency and focus
must underpin the
teaching of employability
skills. The Skills Builder
Partnership provides
six guiding principles.
principles
for teaching
employability skills
Keep it simple
Start young,
keep going
Measure it
A consistent focus on the
essential employability skills ensures a
shared understanding and makes
building these as tangible as possible.
Using the same language all the time
supports this. Teaching children employability skills at
the earliest possible stage provides
more time for mastery. The skills are
about thriving in all aspects of life. We
work with children as young as three. Take time to reflect on the skills
of children and young people – by
observing or through self-assessment.
This gives a balanced understanding of
strengths and weaknesses, highlights
progress and shows next steps.
Things to consider: Things to consider: Things to consider:
Are there opportunities for students
to build on their employability skills
as they grow and develop?
Are you using a consistent skills
framework and assessment tool
such as Skills Builder?
ST CA
 o all staff and students use
D
consistent language when
referring to employability skills?
HORNSEY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
Here’s how one school
is embedding the six
principles into teaching: example, ensuring students ask
questions about them during
visitor assemblies.
PRINCIPLE 1: KEEP IT SIMPLE
Every member of staff, including
support staff, engaged with CPD,
exploring the importance of
teaching essential skills and the
resources available on the hub.
The school’s head of enterprise
explains that staff are already
actively teaching these skills, but
that agreeing a common name
for each skill and a way of
demonstrating and assessing its
use makes all the difference.
The school also plans to
structure its employer
engagement work around
essential employability skills; for PRINCIPLE 2: START YOUNG,
KEEP GOING
Current Year 7 students were
invited to a Year 6 transition event,
working alongside students from
Years 7-13. In teams, prospective
students were introduced to the
eight essential skills and applied
them to a crime-scene
investigation scenario. Students
then arrive on day one at
secondary school ready to
develop these skills further.
26 // EMPLOYABILITY
PRINCIPLE 3: MEASURE IT
Developing a school-wide
approach takes time: later in the
year, teaching staff will use CPD
time to look at the Skills Builder
Framework in more detail and
assess a specific group of students.
PRINCIPLE 4: FOCUS TIGHTLY
Time is dedicated to explicit skills
teaching within the 25-minute
morning tutor time. Short, tailored
video activities reduce workloads
and allow teachers to focus
discussion on relevant points.
Teachers can use the hub to track
activity completion and the site
recommends what to cover next.
PRINCIPLE 5: KEEP PRACTISING
Several departments are building
essential skills directly into their
curricula, in conjunction with their
work to fulfil the Gatsby
“Departments
are building
essential skills
directly into
their curricula”