Founders4Schools is delighted to respond to Building our Industrial Strategy, and supports the Government’s commitment to a modern industrial strategy with its focus on productivity, business growth and a fairer society. To remain competitive, we must extend our technological lead but grow relevant skills in local labour markets; we must, as the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy observes, ‘create the right conditions for new and growing enterprise to thrive’ and allow for the disruption that is to come in the worlds of scienti c and technological discovery. We believe that to contribute to economic prosperity and enable us to stand apart from other nations the industrial strategy must empower people, wherever they nd themselves, and work for all. WE believe we must urgently address the skills gaps in STEM subjects before us, prepare our school-age children with the skills required for the jobs of the future, and invest in training our teachers so they can use digital tools to help them cope with the rapidly changing digital environment.

We call for:

• The release of APIs to key datasets, so that charities and ed-tech companies can reduce the cost and time it takes to prove their impact by tying the interaction in the classroom with attainment data in the national pupil database and the destinations database. We are encouraged by the focus on unlocking data in the Digital Strategy.
• Build on the work of the Royal Society, CBI and CEC to enable more training for educators so they can better equip themselves to advise their students on the career choices in front of them.

• Allowing large companies to second apprentices enrolled in their schemes to SME businesses. This will support the Government’s ambition of 3 million more apprenticeships by 2020, reduce the cost of administering the scheme for the SME business and get them much needed talent at the same time. Founders4Schools would welcome Government convening discussions with large corporates to explain how services like Workfinder can help them do this.

  Our response is directed particularly to the pillars of the Strategy that encompass:

  • Investing in science, research and innovation

  • Developing skills

  • Supporting businesses to start and grow

  • Cultivating world-leading sectors

  • We have considered this response in the context of the Government’s Digital Strategy, published on 1 March 2017. We fully support the Digital Strategy and believe it complements the Industrial Strategy, focusing as it does on our digital future. We acknowledge the tremendous work being done by schools and businesses large and small to support our joint ambitions, and support the creation of a Digital Skills Partnership to convene and provide coherence to those active in this area.

  • Founders4Schools is a leader in the global movement to inspire today’s youth for tomorrow’s world of work. Our mission is to inspire students, prepare them for the rapidly changing world of work, connect them to that work (via our service Workfinder and via their teachers) and to help them make informed decisions that equips them for the future world of work.

    According to The Economist (January 2016) over one billion young people will enter the global labour market in the next decade, and only 40% will be in jobs that currently exist.

    Since it was set up in 2011, Founders4Schools has helped more than 60,000 students prepare for the world of work that they will enter when they nish formal education, be that at age 16, age 18, or following further or higher education.In 2016 alone, Founders4Schools facilitated more than 20,000 students each receiving on average 3 student-employer encounters. In the past 5 years, we have established more than 600 educational partnerships and have around 17,000 inspirational business speakers available to speak in schools or ready to host work- place visits or work-experience placements. 100% of teachers with whom we have worked recommend us, and we have tracked a three-fold increase in likelihood of choosing a STEM subject after just four encounters with business leaders. This in addition to Anthony Mann’s research that shows a vefold decrease in the likelihood to become ‘NEET’ after four encounters with business leaders.1

    In following sections we consider specific responses to the sections identified where F4S can help to further contribute to the success of the Industrial Strategy which we argue addresses the skills gap that we know to be the biggest contributor to the scaleup gap and the associated productivity gap.