South Bank University Academy held a Business Networking Breakfast this week to extend partnerships between our Sixth Form and key London employers. Businesses, especially in the digital and creative sectors, are central to our new T Level provision, with students undertaking long industrial placements as an essential part of the qualification. Enthusiasm for our Digital T Levels and the development of a Digital Hub within the academy was very positive among all the companies represented, with intent to develop partnerships beyond simply providing placements:
One partner, Omnicom Media Group, are bringing in their recruitment team in the New Year to provide advice and guidance to Year 12 and 13 students careers in the Digital field.
We also established links with WYKDigital, which supports underrepresented groups of young people to build careers in the digital sector. We are now working together to build the framework for another exciting partnership, with WYK citing SBUA as an example for their future projects strategy. As well as coming into the Academy in January to talk to Digital Media, IT and Business students about the sector, WYK plan to work with SBUA students to support them to develop meaningful careers in Digital sectors.
Creative Digital Lab, meanwhile, has already hosted one of our Digital Media teachers for a session to see how we can work together and they are providing us with access to their state of the art 'extended reality production' facilities, while we work to bring this technology into the academy itself. They are also keen to upskill our staff and provide T Level placements in a range of roles.
Follow-up meetings are being arranged with a further five companies who are keen to build partnerships with us. These organisations will not only support SBUA students via workshops, talks and visits, but will contribute to the development of our T Level programme, ensuring continued relevance to skills needs. In this way, SBUA sixth form students will have a visible pathway into a career in the Digital sector, and will leave us with the qualifications and knowledge to thrive and succeed in their careers.
- Employers interested in joining our partnership programme should contact Meirion Lewis via the Academy - click here for contact details