PLANS to raise education standards and broaden the horizons of young people in West Somerset were unveiled last week by Education Secretary Justine Greening, as part of the Opportunity Areas initiative.
The £72m national scheme, shared between 12 areas in the UK with low social mobility (roughly £6m each), is now publishing more detailed plans for the first six areas, after months of work by West Somerset Opportunity Area Partnership Board and others around the country.
West Somerset, as well as other areas, will also benefit from up to £190,000 additionally through the Essential Life Skills programme, to help disadvantaged young people develop life skills such as resilience, emotional wellbeing and employability, it was announced at the same time.
West Somerset was lowest out of 324 local authorities in the Social Mobility Index published in January 2016, which compared the chances that a child from a disadvantaged background will do well at school and get a good job.
The aim of the Opportunity Area programme is to develop young people who have the skills and aspiration to access more highly skilled jobs in the area, by getting children ready when they start school and providing learning experiences that give them the right skills to succeed.
“Our ambition is to enable children and young people to be perfectly placed to take advantage of the growing employment opportunities,” the plan said.
It established four initial priorities for the West Somerset Opportunity Area, to be reviewed in 2018/19, ranging from early years education to skills for employment, and also has further plans for targets up to 2020/21.
Senior leaders from local schools including senior leadership at West Somerset Academy Trust, Bridgwater Academy Trust and the Moorland Federation, businesses such as EDF Energy and Channel Group, and leads at Somerset County Council and West Somerset Council, have been working together on the partnership board to shape the plan.
It is also working with three national partner organisations, including the Careers & Enterprise Company, a national company which works on collaboration between employers and schools; the National Citizen Service, a government voluntary programme for personal and social development of 15 to 17-year-olds; the Education Endowment Foundation, an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.
A group of ‘cornerstone’ employers also working with the board to support young people includes Butlin’s, EDF Energy, the National Health Service and NatWest Bank.
Full report in the Free Press