Employment opportunities for students at The Cornwall College Group (TCCG) are being boosted with the launch of a programme to involve local employers in key decisions.
TCCG is putting local and regional business leaders at the heart of shaping the skills that students will learn during their studies, with a series of panel discussions around what future employees will need.
The discussion panels – called employment advisory boards (EABs) – will cover individual subjects that are taught across TCCG’s ten sites covering Devon and Cornwall.
The first EABs will cover engineering, construction and land-based courses.
Justin Olosunde is TCCG’s assistant principal external engagement and business innovation and is spearheading the employer advisory board project.
He commented: “The recently published White Paper (Skills for Jobs) aims to strengthen links between employers and further education providers.
“At Cornwall College, we have always sought to ensure our courses for young people and adults are tailored to the needs of our employers, the role of our newly created Employer Advisor Boards is to build on that work and place employers at the heart of defining local skills needs and our response to them.”
The engineering discussions are being chaired by Philip Anthony of Redruth firm DP Engineering with representatives from Polymermedics, Morthotics, BD and A&P attending to share their views on what skills they look for when recruiting.
Building firm Kier is leading on the construction talks while The Newt will chair the panel covering land-based skills, with input from the Eden Project.
