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Essential skills unlock learning in the classroom, boosting academic outcomes, perseverance and self-belief. They halve the likelihood of being out of work and increase earnings across a lifetime. They even boost wellbeing and life satisfaction. But access to these skills isn’t readily available to all. And where they are missed, it undermines social mobility, productivity and wellbeing.
For the past two years Lloyds Bank has been working alongside Skills Builder Partnership to widen student access to the Skills Builder Universal Framework. The framework, developed with partners such as CIPD, CBI, Gatsby Foundation, BITC and the Careers and Enterprise Company breaks down essential skills into steps that anyone can teach and assess using shared language and an aligned impactful approach.
Lloyds Bank offers three Skills Builder summit experiences for students in KS2 right through to post-16 provision each lasting between 60 and 90 minutes.
Imaginative Inventor supports students with listening, speaking and creativity skills as they take on a sustainability challenge to reduce the environmental impact.
Recruitment Race places students in the role of hiring managers. This allows them to develop Speaking, Listening and Problem Solving skills and improve their understanding of how recruitment works from the other side of the table.
Our newest experience Crime Fighters puts students in the role of crime investigators, tracking down culprits behind economic crime and helping students to learn ways to protect themselves from fraud.
Each experience is led and delivered by trained colleagues from Lloyds Bank who share their career journeys and illustrate how the essential skills come to life in the real world.
Year 6 pupils from William Tyndale school in Islington have been using the language of the essential skills in all aspects of the curriculum, following the principles of keeping it simple, starting early, measuring, focussing tightly, practicing and bringing skills to life. On a recent visit to our Flagship branch in London, students took part in Recruitment Race, learning how we assess and select colleagues to be the front-line ambassadors for our brand.
Sophie Gavalda, assistant head said, “At William Tyndale we’re proud to have achieved the Skills Builder Gold award. We focus on preparing our pupils beyond the realm of primary school, opening up opportunities beyond their current life experiences. We’re thankful for the team at Lloyds Bank who worked with Year 5 on their Skills Builder Sustainability challenge at the Flagship branch. A fantastic day applying their knowing of the essential skills in a real-world context”.
The Skills Builder framework also delivers value in secondary schools, preparing students for transition into life beyond school with readily transferable skills that employers need and want. Chew Valley School in North Somerset has been working with Lloyds Bank for two years. Here, due to the rural location, sessions are delivered as virtual events with classrooms “competing” against each other in the Skills Builder Recruitment Race challenge which puts students in the hot-seat, playing the role of hiring managers for Lloyds Bank and learning about the recruitment process from the other side of the table.
Kate Rowlands, deputy head said, “We really value the inputs we receive from Lloyds Bank. The clear focus on the development of skills via the Skills Builder programme really supports the students’ awareness of how these skills are valued by a significant employer, and helps them to practise these effectively. “
Skills Builder summits are offered free of charge to schools and available throughout the academic year and support schools evidencing Gatsby benchmarks 5 and 6.
To discuss and book ahead for academic year 2023/24, contact the Lloyds Bank Early Careers team [email protected]
Originally published at: Lloyds Bank
