NPA Enterprise & Employability Launch Event Making the most from Networking

1. NPA Enterprise & Employability Launch Event Making the most from Networking

2. Objectives • To provide some practical hints and tips on how to establish effective business networks from within your local community to support learning and development of your learners. • Help you Identify what Business & Enterprise support you may need. • Identify which businesses can offer you the best support solutions. • Give you guidance on what business networks exist for you to tap into and how to develop effective networks which can allow access to greater business involvement. • What do you do next?

3. Identifying needs • What business networking do you have at present? • Who do you collaborate with? • Do you measure its effectiveness? • Have you identified from your course program what type of support your school or college needs to enhance students learning? • Do you target businesses that can offer specialised skills e.g. interview techniques, graphic design, marketing, retail, customer service? • What types of businesses would you like to be in partnership or collaborate with that can offer something different?

4. Identify a support network • Do you have a database of businesses that support you at present? • Do you use your Parents Council or other internal support body to help recruit businesses? • Do you have parents of your students with skills or businesses that can help? • Have you established what a business would gain from working with you and your students? E.g. new recruits, social responsibility, product development, consumer research? • Do you have success stories to get in your local paper that may help demonstrate the benefits to a business? • Are there local training organisations that can supplement learning?

5. Effective Business Networks • The majority of SME businesses in Scotland rely heavily on effective business networking. • In business , people buy people first, then services second, thus networking is an established and proven way of doing business. • This is often their greatest source of business. • You choose who you want to work with. • Are you members of any networking organisation? • If you are how effective is it for you? • If you want to meet business people then you need to do this in a business arena. Businesses may not have access or get exposure to education thus you need to go to them.

6. How to find Business Networks • Do you have established links with your local Business Gateway provider? www.bgateway.com This link will help you find the one for your area. • Chamber of Commerce - www.scottishchambers.org.uk. Most Chambers meet at least monthly. • Parents Council – can they help you get introduced to business partners? • Finding networking events in your area – www.findnetworkingevents.com This organisation have numerous events listed for your area which could get you access to relevant business people. • Existing parents – do you know or are they involved in business networking? • Scottish Enterprise - www.scottish-enterprise.com . They list all the business sectors which can help you potentially identify businesses that could offer you and your students value

7. How to find Business Networks • Networking organisations: BNI – Business Networking International www.bniscotland.co.uk , www.bniscotlandwest.co.ukwww.bni-europe.com/viewregion.php?region=36 • 4Networking - UK business network organisation. www.4networking.biz/events • Federation of Small Businesses – represents the views of over 20,000 members throughout Scotland. www.fsb.org.uk/scotland • Business Club Scotland - www.businessclubscotland.co.uk • Association of Scottish Businesswomen - www.asb-scotland.org

8. How to find Business Networks • Your existing business / collaborative partners – can they introduce you to their network? • Local Authority Partners – does your local authority have good business links that would allow these to be explored further by you? • Authority Placement Officers – they will have a host of businesses they work with and have developed employment relationships with that could be explored further. • This can prove invaluable particularly if it is a specialist area of support that you require. • External Training Providers – they will have good links to businesses and may well have well be able to support you also.

9. Exploring your networking opportunity. • Getting access to businesses and networks is only one part of the process. • You will have to realise the potential they have for you. • You will need to identify how they can help you. • You will need to help them understand how they can support Enterprise in Education. • You will need to help them understand “what do they get from the support we give”? • The majority of businesses genuinely want to help in some way, however are often unclear on how.

10. Examples of some Best practice • Cumbernauld College – BNI • Enterprise project in Aberdeenshire • SPS Leadership program in Falkirk • Retail Skills for Work – Grangemouth • Personal Statements – Tesco • Product design for food industry – Sainsbury • Graphic designers being used in Aberdeenshire schools. • Fraser Doherty - Edinburgh

11. What’s next • Who owns the business network process for you? • Evaluate where you are at present. • Identify your needs for the next 3 years. • Look at businesses who have worked with you in the past for support. • Target businesses or key people who can help you. • Identify skills of parents and people currently associated with your school or college. • Clearly identify “what is in it “ for businesses to support you. Use previous success stories to support this. • Identify local business networking opportunities. • Develop a collaborative strategy that supports the learning & development of students which gives businesses the opportunity to “give something back” to society. This will tick the social responsibility box for businesses

12. Summary • Engaging with Employers to support the learning and development of our young people is critical to achieving continued success. • Education needs to become more creative at how it uses its local business resources more effectively, thus benefiting long term learning. • Many employers are willing to support Education however are unsure on how to help or what is required. • Students enjoy working with people from outside education as it gives them breadth of learning. • Businesses can help students make a successful transition from education to the world of work. • Effective business networking and how to get the best from it, is a proven way of developing learning for students, education providers and businesses themselves.

13. Thank you. Questions ?