Business scheme takes in 10,000 pupils

OVER 10,000 post-primary students have taken part in a programme linking disadvantaged schools with major local businesses, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said yesterday.

The Minister briefed his EU colleagues in Brussels on the Schools Business Partnership – at the request of the Czech presidency.

Established in 2001, the partnership aims to develop links between schools and local businesses in supporting inclusion in education.

In all, over 10,000 students from schools involved in the department’s School Completion Programme have signed up for the Schools Business Partnership.

Students are assigned a local business mentor to help them through school, receive advice on CV preparation and interviews and sign up for work experience.

Almost 150 post-primary schools are matched with local enterprises across the country.

Yesterday, EU education ministers said such employer-school partnerships are particularly important in the downturn. They agreed that developing better links between business and education should be a focus of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme, which provides almost €7 billion for education and training programmes across the EU.

The Minister said he was “delighted to be asked by the Czech presidency to outline the success of the partnership to other education ministers in Europe”.

The 117 participating firms in Ireland are from sectors including financial, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, technology, retail and food. The partnership is divided into four main programmes:

- The Student Mentoring Programme encourages students at risk of leaving school to continue studies with support of a mentor from a local business. About 1,400 students have participated.

- The Skills@Work programme invites local business employees to talk to post-primary school students about real-life workforce skills such as interview preparation and CV writing. Almost 11,000 students have taken part.

- The Summer Work Placement Programme, in co-operation with the Irish Funds Industry Association, organises short-term job opportunities for students in leading global financial services organisations. About 245 students have participated since 2006.

- The Management Excellence for Principals programme facilitates skills-sharing between business and heads of schools. The number of principals who have taken part is 377.

For further details, see www.bitc.ie.