A New Employability Charter Website

The Hull Employability Charter was brought about as a direct result of the Hull Building Schools for the Future Programme and the desire from Hull City Council and those behind the building programme to ensure a legacy in skills and training was left. Putting it simply, the Hull Employability Charter is nothing more than a commitment. Businesses are asked to sign up to the Charter in order to recognise the work that is being done alongside education providers to embed employability skills. Like Cobus, many companies already work with schools, colleges and universities delivering tried and tested programmes but we firmly believe that there is an opportunity for every business across our region to get involved. Businesses may be able to offer an internship or work experience placement, showcase their business in a careers day or assist with mock interviews and by signing up to the charter. After the initial presentation about the Employability Charter, a new steering group was made up of partners from Hull Esteem Consortium, The Humber EBP, Hull City Council’s 14-19 team, Sewell Group and Malet Lambert School along with comms partner, the Cobus Communications Group. Whilst a lot of good work is already done on the subject of employability, it is no secret that the City’s future workforce is lacking in many of the key skills that employers look for when recruiting and as a company we wanted to find out how we could help this growing problem. The group behind the Hull Employability Charter had begun to look to businesses to get involved in helping to shape their future workforce and it is here that Cobus has been a key figure in creating a tool to help the Charter achieve this goal. Following a lot of hard work over the summer and the invaluable support received from Cobus who on hearing about the pilot, pledged our support immediately by developing an interactive website as a central hub for sharing information between schools and business. This unique website not only showcases the work that is being done by local individuals, organisations and companies, it will also serve as inspiration for others around the City and will provide a central hub of information to assist both the education and business sectors, delivering genuine documents from the workplace and business community, together with lesson plans and educational material that has been developed and provided for others to re-use. Speaking of the Employability Charter, Steve Tomlinson Employability, Participation & Skills lead for Hull City Council said: “A lot of hard work has gone into bringing together the Employability Charter and we see it as a key to unlocking the potential of our City’s young people and to help us to give more of them the skills they need to gain employment. We acknowledge that there is a great amount of work already being done but with this emphasis on linking business with education, we are confident we can move things on to the next level. ” Speaking of the need for businesses to get involved in the development of skills, Sam Whitaker, Chief Executive of Hull Esteem Consortium said: “Students and teaching staff benefit enormously from the influence of working with business – there is no-one better to convey the skills, attributes and qualities employers are looking for. We hope that local businesses will sign up to the Employability Charter and do what they can to help prepare the City’s young people for the world of work that awaits them” Speaking of their commitment to the Employability Charter, Cobus Group Director Michael O’Grady stated: “To play such an instrumental role in the development of a key educational project for the City has been such a rewarding experience. As a local employer we understand the need to be actively involved with educational providers to play an active role in shaping the employees of the future. With our advice and expertise we understand the huge benefits we can give to local young people and add value to