New membership offer gives West Midlands companies the chance to ‘BE Connected’

Published by Russ Cockburn for Danks Cockburn Public Relations Ltd in Education and also in Bill Payments, Central Government, Communities, Local Government

The West Midlands’ first ever membership offer to help businesses work more effectively with education has got off to a flying start with seven organisations already signed up.

Organisations, including Birmingham’s Children Hospital, Clicking Mad, Jaguar Land Rover, and the NEC, have already pledged their support for BE Connected...just days after it was launched.

Created by Business Education partnership BXL, the initiative promises to offer companies bespoke packages of support that will help them link more effectively to schools and young people.

This includes five different membership levels (‘Registered’ through to ‘Platinum’), all carefully designed to provide a structured way of fulfilling social engagement policies, secure greater returns on investment, raise profile within the community and offer employees new and inspiring training opportunities.

John Ling, CEO of BXL, provided the insight:

“Businesses, schools and young people working together is not a new idea, but there is a lot more that can be done to make it more effective and structured for both parties.

“This was one of the key drivers behind the launch of BE Connected and is reflected in the different levels of membership that aim to offer organisations anything from volunteering opportunities and help with CSR planning to hosting a ‘Skills for Success Week’ or creating a new Partnership Centre to provide on-site work experience.”

He continued: “The programme is different in the sense it taps into our existing relationships to provide companies with a structured engagement plan to get the most out of working with schools and young people/students.

“Members enjoy one point of contact and can rest safe in the knowledge they have the best possible route to supporting skills development in their chosen industry, developing their workforce of the future and giving existing staff new personal development opportunities that will benefit the bottom line.”

BE Connected is the result of years of planning and consultation with partners from business, academia, the third sector and local authorities.

There are five levels of membership starting with BE Registered, which is free of charge and intended to suit firms who want to engage with education on an ad-hoc basis.

It then ranges from BE Bronze (£1000 per year), BE Silver (£2500) and BE Gold (£5000) and this includes consultation on CSR planning, mentoring support and, for Gold, organising a Skills for Success week for up to 50 young people.

Platinum is the top end of the spectrum at £15,000 per year and will cater for organisations looking at investment in programmes that will inspire over a longer period of time.

This could include the creation of on-site Partnership Centres that are helping bring the curriculum to life and give valuable insights into careers in that sector.

John added: “The bespoke nature of BE Connected is intended to suit all types of organisations from SMEs and family run businesses to the big multi-nationals.

“The response has been great and we are in the process of signing up 1200 organisations for BE Registered, whilst Clicking Mad in Shropshire has taken Bronze, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Shakespeares, NEC and Solihull MBC (Silver) and Jaguar Land Rover the Platinum membership.

“Latest figures suggest there is a ‘lost generation’ of 1.02 million young people of out of work and every year in Birmingham there are 10,000 16 year-olds leaving school who need an opportunity. This membership offer will play an important role in addressing this issue.”

The NEC Group is another firm that has connected at the top level and continues its commitment to developing the skills and aspirations of young people in the West Midlands.

Paul Thandi, CEO, said: “Our business delivers a £2billion annual impact to the regional economy which supports the full time equivalent of 29,000 jobs. It naturally follows that as a major employer, we are passionate about investing in the future skills and employment prospects of the next generation in our objective of creating a world-class workforce in the region.

“BE Connected is a great delivery mechanism for our objectives and it should encourage businesses to connect efficiently with young people for the mutual benefit of the future economy.”

BE Connected will initially start life as a West Midlands programme, with plans to roll-out the offer to all regions of the UK over the course of the next eighteen months.

For further information, please visit www.bxlworks.org.uk or contact 0845 600 7756