Impact Level 3 Case study: Heathrow’s Essential Skills Masterclasses
Impact Level 3 Case study: Heathrow’s Essential Skills Masterclasses
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Context
Context
Heathrow Employment and Skills Academy have developed a range of outreach programmes which they have aligned to the Universal Framework for building essential skills. This ensures they are equipping young people with the essential skills needed to thrive in the ever-evolving job market.
The aim of the Essential Skills Masterclasses is to introduce college students (both mainstream and SEND students) to the range of job roles available across the Heathrow Family, and the skills required in these sectors. They have been designed to create opportunities for students to apply their essential skills to a variety of activities, related to the different careers available at Heathrow.
The first set of masterclasses were piloted in 2020 with HRUC. They have since been rolled out across 4 college campuses in West London, and are hoping to expand again in the future. The sessions are run with groups of up to 30 students. All students take part in two, two hour sessions, a few months apart. By the end of the 4 hours, students have covered all eight of the essential skills.
How the programme has achieved Impact Level 3
How the programme has achieved Impact Level 3
Each of the hour-long sessions is linked to two of the essential skills, and all of the activities have been designed to allow students to apply and practise the focus skill steps in each session.
Session 1: Listening and Speaking
Main activity: Students take part in a Q&A carousel with volunteers from Heathrow, who rotate around the groups in the room, answering questions about their job roles and how they apply their essential skills at work.
Session 2: Leadership and Teamwork
Main activity: Students take part in a decision making activity, where they discuss which of the possible airport improvements to spend a limited budget on.
Session 3: Creativity and Problem Solving
Main Activity: This activity is based on Heathrow’s sustainability goals. Students have to work in teams to design an invention to reduce waste at the airport.
Session 4: Staying Positive and Aiming High
Main Activity: Students reflect on their essential skills and create a SMART goal, and a skills-based CV.
There are also alternative versions of each of the sessions available for groups of SEN students who require some additional scaffolding.
Throughout each of the sessions, the essential skills names, icons and definitions have been used consistently.
Each session starts with an overview of what progress in each skill looks like, in line with the stages of the Universal Framework. Students are then asked to tick which stage they are most confident in demonstrating while at college, and write an example of when they have demonstrated it. The session then focuses on the specific steps that it’s supporting students to practise, with some discussion questions supporting reflections around these specific steps.
At the end of each session, there are some discussion questions, supporting students to reflect on how they applied the focus skills steps in the session. They are then asked to complete another confidence scale, this time, selecting the stage they feel they demonstrated most confidently in the session, with an example of when they did so.
Finally, the conversations around the skills are linked to the positive outcomes that they are associated with. This is particularly visible in the volunteer insights questions when the session introduces the focus skill steps. At this point, volunteers speak about how they have applied the focus skill steps, and how they have been useful for them/benefited them in their role and broader lives.
Benefits for the organisation
Benefits for the organisation
Utilising the shared approach of the Skills Builder Universal Framework allows for a common language to be used across settings, and the benefits of this are demonstrated clearly through Heathrow’s work.
The workshops give students the opportunity to see the essential skills they are developing in school and their wider life, and make connections with how these will support them to be successful in a STEM activity. Tutors integrate this language into activities so students reflect not only on how they are applying these skills within the specific context of the workshop, but also reflect on how these will support them through later life and into employment.
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