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The latest from the Partnership

The latest news from the employers, educators, and impact organisations that make up the Skills Builder Partnership.

A guide to creating inclusive careers resources using a strengths-based approach
3 steps to improving your teams' creativity
Soft skills, transferable skills, employability skills, or essential skills…
Supporting global educators to deliver meaningful skills education
Essential skills in construction
Don’t miss out on 7 in 10 young jobseekers over “lack of experience”
How to boost your problem solving skills with strategic planning
Jack’s apprenticeship experience at Harlequins Foundation
Essential skills for apprenticeships: “a catalyst for professional development”
New approaches to essential skills in Uganda
Working in partnership with Kenya National Examinations Council
Practical ways to boost essential skills for business success in 2024
Essential skills to fuel North East Businesses
The sky's the limit for students in Heathrow Airport Essential Skills Masterclasses
How to tap into your leadership style to find professional growth and development
Skills Leader Network Event: Special ways to bring essential skills to life
Aiming high, achieving success: Boosting your professional development with strategic planning
How to articulate your essential skills on your CV and in interviews
What 100,000 young people say about their essential skills
How to boost your creativity skills to innovate effectively as a team
How to listen effectively and build the relationships to kick-start your career
Collective Mission, Collective Impact
A decade of building essential skills at William Tyndale Primary School
The power of a universal language at Envision
The versatility of the Universal Framework at Amey
5 Policy wins for essential skills in 2023
Celebrating 15 years: Partnership Day and Impact Report 2023
Building a movement - reflections and insights from Skills Builder
The power of partnership - Skills Builder’s 15 year journey with Tom Ravenscroft
What are essential skills?
Making management intentional
Essential Skills Preparing Young People for the Future: Impact Organisations Spotlight on Apps for Good
Building Leadership Skills: A Collaborative, Efficient and Inclusive Process
Using teamwork skills to resolve unhelpful conflicts in the workplace
9 Tips to Turn Adversity into Personal Development: Staying Positive through Early Career Challenges
The important role of educators in developing essential skills for the world of work
Empowering future generations to build their essential skills: Career Insights sessions making a difference
One year on from the Trailblazers Report: Supporting employers with essential skills
The Silent Skill: Personal development and active listening
8 inclusive resources to teach essential skills
Closing the Skills Gap: squiggly careers and mapping skills
Get specific about skills in your recruitment, outreach and staff development with the Skills Builder Careers Explorer
Practical ideas to teach learners how to be creative
Introducing the Skills Builder Careers Explorer: essential skills profiles for 1,000+ jobs
Improved confidence and capability for post-16 students on University of Sheffield’s Sutton Trust Summer School
Four ways to support students’ problem solving skills in the new academic year
How to improve employee engagement by developing listening skills
Building the listening skills of Learners
Amey achieves Gold Skills Builder Excellence Mark 
Laying the groundwork for effective leadership skills in the classroom
Top tips for using essential skills to support with transition
Essential skills for 2035
How to deliver Labour’s Education Mission
Investing in essential skills could help change the course for the quarter of UK workers set to quit this year
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External Press

Education’s missing piece

There is something fundamental missing in education. I saw it first-hand a decade ago as a teacher in a challenging secondary school in East London. Every new teacher faces challenges: seating plans, behaviour management, coursework. But there seemed to be a much bigger problem. I was worried that my students struggled to listen to one another and articulate their ideas. It didn’t seem sustainable that I worried more about their coursework and deadlines than they did – or that the expectation was I would organise them. And what about creativity, or the ability to problem-solve?

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‘The Missing Piece’ book review - Dr. Mary Bousted

Tom Ravenscroft has not only done his research – the sources in his book are wide and varied – but he also wears his learning lightly. The result is a very readable and convincing argument for the explicit teaching of skills.

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School reports miss the talents that matter - just look at Alan Turing

Alan Turing is one of an illustrious cast of over-achievers whose school reports did little to hint at what was to come. His mathematics teacher suggests that he would do rather better if his work was “intelligible and legible”. There is little hint of the deep problem-solving skills that would make him a formidable code breaker in the Second World War.

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Profile: Tom Ravenscroft

Tom Ravenscroft is perhaps the most quietly passionate proponent of a “skills” curriculum in education today – and if that rings alarm bells, keep reading. He was just nine years old when he set up a little production line making greeting cards. His mum, a speech and language therapist, suggested he sell them at village fetes, which he did. At 11, he offered his services as a car washer around his town of Marlowe in Buckinghamshire, soon “rebranding as a car valet” to charge a bit more. In the same year, Ravenscroft’s father, an auditor with BP, helped him decide which secondary school to choose by listing his key criteria, such as “IT equipment” and showing him how to weight them mathematically. A five-mile run was treated with similar foresight, with goals worked backwards over several months.

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Start-up success: six lessons for aspiring social entrepreneurs

While it may sound poetic, Enabling Enterprise was not born in a flash of inspiration. Rather it emerged from my desperate attempts as a naïve new business studies teacher to engage a class of challenging 14 and 15-year-olds. Through my time spent with this class I became increasingly aware that there were key elements missing in their prescribed business course. Namely, there was no practical element, few opportunities for students to develop their employability skills, and limited real world application.

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