This time the Stakeholder Breakfast focused on the issues and concerns faced by Employment entities in relation to links with Education.
The following themes were outlined:
- Representatives from the employment sectors were present. They were very positive about the links which exist with educational institutions on initiatives such as the one week career exposure experiences for all Year 10 State Schools learners which involves around 2,300 learners per year; the work-place career orientation visits, talks and participation in career fairs amongst others. Within the post-secondary and tertiary institutions good practices relating to work-placements, apprenticeships and Internships schemes were also highlighted.
- Employment institutions also highlighted the value-added learning acquired from such links – listening to the learners’ views relating to tasks at the place of work and discussions with career advisors/supervisors at the place of work. The perspective of the educational sector vis a vis workplace policies and practices was also considered as beneficial.
- The challenges faced by Employment entities in relation to the links with Educational institutions were outlined, amongst them the lack of personnel to mentor learners at the place of work, the quality of the experiences to provide to learners, at times the lack of interest/motivation on behalf of the learners themselves and the numerous requests made for work based learning by the different educational institutions.
