15 November ESL Briefing
Dear Colleagues
This week I’ve been really inspired by our fantastic partnership working which enables ESL to make such positive contributions to the lives of individuals and to the wider city.
On Wednesday I joined the On Site Team for their annual award ceremony. Despite the torrential rain, the main Ashton Court Mansion House was packed with inspirational construction apprentices, their employers, family and friends. As ever, huge congratulations to the On Site team for a polished and well organised event. Councillor Anna Keen made a stirring address which reminded everyone how On Site Bristol apprentices are critical to the life of the city – including the building of new homes, schools and roads that enable Bristol to function. Click here to find out more https://news.bristol.gov.uk/news/young-talent-showcased-at-bristols-apprentice-awards
This week the Employment Support Team held another successful Community Jobs Fair in Barton Hill – organised in partnership with Barton Hill Settlement, Ashley Community Housing and the DWP. This event provided a great opportunity for over 160 local job seekers to meet employers and support organisations – including our own On Site Bristol and Community Learning Teams. Around 95% of attendees were from a BAME community and two local people volunteered to act as interpreters. I understand that employer chairs were removed – and as a result the conversations were much better. Perhaps we need to try this in some of our meetings!
Some of you may know that the City of Bristol College has been inspected by Ofsted this week, and Elke and I were interviewed by one of the inspectors. We were able to give lots of positive examples of where we have worked together over the last two years on joint strategies, plans, projects and service provision. We were pleased to be able to reinforce how the college is a critical partner for both the City Council and for our team. We probably won’t hear the result officially for a few weeks – but we do wish our colleagues the very best of luck with the outcome.
Collaboration doesn’t have to stop within national boundaries. Following a successful bid, Hayley (Works Manager) and Intisar (WORKS Apprentice) have had an opportunity to visit Ghent in Belgium this week, acting as a ‘Critical Friend’ and learning about employer driven projects to address the local skills mismatch. We will be organising a ‘lunchtime learning’ session where Hayley and Intisar can tell us about their trip and share their key findings. Hope to see you there!
With all best wishes for a warm and dry weekend!
Jane Taylor
Head of Employment, Skills and Learning
