Developing Young Workforce: Business Partnerships

This page captures the ongoing work at Bathgate Academy around Business Partnership working

Our Ongoing and Developing Links with Food & Drink Industry Partners:

S2 Make it With Meat Project- Scottish Food and Drink Federation (SFDF), AK Stoddart, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), Tesco, Oatridge Farm, (possibly Mortons Rolls & possibly Aldi) - Home Economics (HE), Business Education, Craft Design and Technology (CDT)

This project continues to go from strength to strength and has been running for a number of years. The project was recently awarded Highly Commended at the West Lothian Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. For the past two years, the winning burger has been put into production and sold at a showcase event at our local Tesco to raise money for a local charity. A new link with Glasgow baker Mortons Rolls has been recently established and they are also keen to get involved in the project/work with the school.

S3 Seafood Challenge- Scottish Food and Drink Federation (SFDF), Macraes, (possibly Waitrose, West Lothian College, artist Alan McGowan (who has provided packaging illustrations for Marks & Spencer)) - Home Economics (HE), (possibly Art & Design)

This project ran for the first time last year with pupils going out on site visits, a visit from their New Product Development Manager and pupils creating new and exciting recipes using salmon and/or mackerel. We plan to further develop this project and link moving forward.

S1 Project with Paterson Arran- Given the number of food and drink partners in the area and the possibilities for a range of many different careers in this industry we have also decided to rekindle this link that we have had quite a bit of contact with in the past. They are very keen to run a project with S1, based on a similar model to the other projects in the junior phase where pupils would design and market a biscuit and the packaging, branding etc. This project could involve a number of departments/faculties. Paterson Arran are also keen to bring in different members of staff to talk about their roles within the company - i.e. Finance, Marketing etc. This type of mini career event could be rolled out to different year groups and with a range of sectors, subject areas etc. I have spoken to pupils regarding this and they were really enthusiastic about this, so I would be keen to look further into this with help from different colleagues and partners (I.e. SDS etc.)

Food for Thought Transition Project Bid- We recently submitted a bid to Education Scotland for a cluster transition project for P7 to design a sandwich.

Georgina Scott and Emma Aitken attended the Food & Drink Career event arranged by Stuart McKay recently, making contact with a number of potential partners (i.e. Co-operative, Costa, Whitbread etc.) and continue to build links and look at progression for our pupils in this area.

Our Ongoing and Developing Links with Engineering Science and Practical Electronics (Science, CDT, Mathematics)

Glen Turner Distillery - National 4/5, Higher and Advanced Higher Engineering Science and National 4/5 Practical Electronics - Science & CDT, (Modern Languages and Art & Design)

This link has been developing over several years, with staff coming out to speak to pupils about the business, possible career pathways and site visits. They are really keen to help as much as possible and we have also talked about having them in to speak to pupils during the junior phase. Their female engineer is particularly keen to promote careers in STEM for girls, tackling gender imbalance. More recently we had a visit from their Business Support Manager and Supply Chain Manager where they spoke to our S2 regarding the importance/benefits of studying a language. This was as part of the SCILT initiative. This project included working on a joint project with them, as well as site visits. The distillery has also asked us to run an Art project/competition to create some site specific pieces for their new office space. We plan to work on this project in the future with S3 pupils, going out to the distillery to take some initial photos for inspiration and giving pupils a flavour of what it is like to work on a commissioned artwork.

Shin-Etsu - National 4/5, Higher and Advanced Higher Engineering Science and National 4/5 Practical Electronics - Science & CDT

This link has been developing over several years, with staff coming out to speak to pupils about the business, possible career pathways and site visits.

Jabil - Higher and Advanced Higher Engineering Science. This is a recently established link that we are very excited to work with. They have attended our mock interview events and met with Georgina. Our Higher and Advanced Higher pupils went out on a site visit. Moving forward, we will discuss how this partnership could potentially develop further in the future.

Balfour Beatty-This is a newly established partnership this session. We participated in their Learn Live events and met up with them to discuss possible projects. One pupil went out on placement and they also provided some materials and vouchers for our Science department's greenhouse/garden project. Unfortunately, due to staff absence at Balfour Beatty, we did not manage to work as closely with them as we had hoped. However, this is a link that we can follow up in the future.

Mitsubishi Project-We were involved in this again this year (run with S3 across all WL schools) and won the competition! We also linked up with them for the Transition to Work project which was really successful. We hope to link up with them further in the future if possible. Also, since winning the Mitsubishi project, we have had a possible link contact us to express how impressed they were. This will be followed up in due course.

Leonardo - Leonardo came in and presented to a group of pupils regarding their apprenticeship scheme. This was extremely successful and we have a link to follow up with in the future.

There is a lot going on and a great deal of potential in this area, with staff really experienced at working with partners. We are keen to do more in junior phase to help pupils learn about possible careers and pathways in various industries. Areas of focus moving forward include also working with college and university/hospital contacts. We have further potential contacts within the Biology department at Edinburgh University and the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. We are also looking at trying to create a link with WL Gore, Livingston.

Our Ongoing and Developing links with Business Education and Computing

Sky - We tried to link with Sky several years ago via the West Lothian network, however, unfortunately this did not come to anything at the time. This year we have managed to meet up with Sky and attend Sky Skills Academy with a number of subjects/faculties including English, Humanities and PE. A large number of our S3 attended with English, creating presentations and some S2 pupils also attended with Geography. Pupils really enjoyed these visits and were able to relate what they were doing in their classes with the workplace and skills required. Alison Farquhar (Business Education) has also established a link for a pilot they are working on in Finance. This is a link that we are very keen to work with moving forward.

Lloyds - Representatives from Lloyds came out during November to chat to our senior Business Education and Administration pupils regarding their apprenticeship and graduate schemes and also facilitate workshops and mock interviews with our pupils. This event was extremely successful and the pupils got a great deal out of this event.

Aberdeen Asset Management-Representatives came out to chat to our senior Business Education and Administration pupils regarding their apprenticeship and graduate schemes and also facilitate workshops and mock interviews with our pupils. We are keen to link up with them again in the future.

HMRC - We worked with this link previously for our Customer Service course and although we are not currently running this, we would like to work with them again. I have tried to make contact with them and will continue to pursue this moving forward.

Ernst and Young - Contact has been made for potential partnership working. We need to follow this up as I suspect there has been movement with their contacts.

Aberdein Consadine - Fairly recent link established. I have made contact recently, but need to follow up.

Investment 2020 initiative-This is a great initiative which works to educate and encourage pupils around careers and pathways into the financial services industry. A range of companies are represented including Standard Life, Franklin Templeton Investments etc. I attended the event in November and June. This is a fantastic model that we could take inspiration from with other sectors, partners etc.

Skyscanner- We have previously met up with a representative and came up ways to work in partnership, as well as some exciting projects for pupils in S3 and the senior phase. Unfortunately, they were very busy and there also seems to have been some movement in their HR Department and company structure. However, we are keen to pursue this again and have potential links that we are going to follow up. This was such an exciting link, so fingers crossed!

Ongoing and Developing Links within Expressive Arts

Music - Bathgate Music Festival, DJ workshops etc. Potential to develop links for Music Technology course.

Drama - Howden Park Centre, Firefly Arts. Potential to develop links for NPA courses.

Art & Design - We continue to participate in the extremely successful Schuh Challenge. We have a project for site specific artwork to develop with Glen Turner Distillery. We have a link with an Edinburgh Council Interior Architect/Designer and Scotland Regional Director for Society of British and International Design to develop. We also have good links with Edinburgh College of Art. We recently took a great deal of inspiration from a project running in Edinburgh in conjunction with Edinburgh College and industry partners. We are keen to contact West Lothian College to see if we can possibly develop a similar model at Bathgate.

On-going and developing links within Humanities, English and Languages

These are areas that we want to look at moving forward to embed links with the curriculum and there has been ongoing discussion with staff in these departments to find links and think of different ways of embedding DYW into these faculties.

English have had a number of writers visit the school, linked up with the Scottish Book Trust and visited Sky Skills Academy. There is a lot of scope development and the department are keen to further develop in this area, looking at presentation skills, journalism etc.

Modern Languages have also done a lot of work in this area, linking up with the distillery and attending conferences etc. They are keen to promote the importance of learning languages and are looking to set up a mini career event at some point over the next session.

Humanities attended Sky Skills Academy which was really successful and I have been in discussion with them around where and how they would like to develop links. This faculty will be an area of priority next session and we would be keen to try and link up with museums for History, the court for Modern Studies etc.