Perry Beeches School in Birmingham is Giving Students a Head Start with New WorkSkills Courses

Perry Beeches School in Birmingham is helping to prepare its students for further education and the working world by offering dedicated WorkSkills courses. It is one of the first schools in the UK to offer these new online vocational courses with units including ‘Preparing for an Interview’, ‘Working in a Team’ and ‘Preparing for Work Placement’. The courses are delivered through ‘Vision2learn for schools’ from Creating Careers (www.creatingcareers.com), providers of practical online courses leading to nationally recognised vocational qualifications.

Perry Beeches is leading the way when it comes to meeting the government’s goal for 14-19 year olds: to give young people the knowledge and skills that employers and the economy need to prosper in the 21st century.* Pupils can choose units from a broad selection of work-focused modules to build a flexible, personal course of study which meets their individual needs. This will give them the skills they need to enter the workplace in Birmingham or pursue further education. They can log-on to interactive, engaging study sessions, communicate online with peers, teaching staff, reflect on their experiences, send assessment work through an internal messaging system and store evidence in a personal e-portfolio.

Learners have access to advice and guidance from their teacher who can track and manage learner progress efficiently online and use comprehensive online teaching resources to assess work. The WorkSkills qualifications have been developed by Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body. Edexcel accredits and endorses WorkSkills on vision2learn for schools.

Darren Foreman, Assistant Headteacher at Perry Beeches School, commented: "It’s been an amazing year for our school – alongside our glowing OFSTED report we’ve also been crowned the most improved school in the UK. We strive to continue improving and to equip our students with everything they may need for the future, so we introduced WorkSkills as part of our Pathways programme. This programme offers vocational courses for our 14-16 year old students. The pupils’ response to the WorkSKills courses has been fantastic, they’ve taken to them quickly and enjoy learning skills they can apply to a world both inside and outside of education."

Jonathan Ovenden, Business Development Director at Creating Careers commented: "Perry Beeches School is offering its pupils a brighter future by adding WorkSkills courses to its curriculum. Pupils will leave with the right skills to thrive in a working environment and local employers will certainly recognise what a difference these courses make. Government funded reports suggest that as a nation we need more skills to prosper in the future so where better to start than in our schools?"

The WorkSkills suite on vision2learn will initially comprise of 45 stand-alone units at Level 1 and 2, which learners can pick and mix from to achieve either a BTEC Award, Certificate or Diploma. Each qualification has a GCSE equivalent, for example a BTEC Certificate is equivalent to one GCSE. Each of the units will take between 10 and 20 hours to complete, which means that modules can be slotted flexibly into existing curriculum timetables for learners already studying for BTECs, GCSEs, Diplomas, NVQs and other recognised courses.

Creating Careers will be exhibiting at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) Conference and Exhibition between the 26-28 November at the Birmingham International Conference Centre (ICC). Schools visiting the stand can see WorkSkills online on vision2learn for schools.

For more information about WorkSkills and vision2learn for schools, please contact Jonathan Ovenden at Creating Careers, Tel: 07730 402 653; email: jonathan.ovenden@creatingcareers.com; website: www.vision2learnforschools.com