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    - Business Class West Midlands
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Key contact

Dave Hughes

Business Class Manager

dave.hughes@bitc.org.uk

Business Class West Midlands

Business Class is Business in the Community's flagship strategic education programme. It provides a simple and effective framework for developing strategic, long-term and positive partnerships between schools and businesses, with the ultimate goal of helping young people develop the skills, aspirations and motivation they need to succeed in the world of work.

Businesses have worked with schools for many years on a range of levels and through a number of initiatives. Business Class was developed in response to many companies' concerns about the ad-hoc and short-term nature of much of their engagement with schools. Working in local clusters, businesses build one to one partnerships with secondary schools demonstrating the greatest need, to develop bespoke long-term action plans which meet local needs and priorities.

This unique approach develops sustainable three-year partnerships which enable schools to identify opportunities for collaboration at all levels and businesses to share their expertise, as well as offering direct support to young people.

Why this matters

More than 1 in 6 young people in the UK leave school unable to read, write and add up properly
Over 16% of 18 year olds are NEET - not in Education, employment or training
1.8 million children live in workless households

The Business Case

Business Class can bring a range of benefits to participating businesses, not least developing staff skills and motivation and up-skilling the future workforce.

“Business Class has allowed A.F. Blakemore to build upon its existing links with St Thomas More School, in Walsall. While this is a school that the company has supported for more than 20-years, the Business Class model has helped us establish a clear strategy for the future that goes way beyond our previous level of involvement". Paul Cowley, Corporate Affairs Manager, AF Blakemore.

West Midlands Business Class Clusters

In the West Midlands we have clusters operating in Birmingham, Black Country and Coventry with 38 Business Class Partnerships running between them. The clusters support the individual partnerships between schools and businesses and meet termly to share experiences and highlight key areas of focus.

Interested in joining your local Business Class Cluster?

For more details please contact:

Dave Hughes, Business Class Manager

Kelly Stackhouse, Business Class Broker

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