East Sussex County Council have secured £200k of new funding to help support East Sussex youngsters towards the World of Work. Here are the objectives and how the money will be spent.

1. Progress!
Careers & Enterprise Investment Fund
A Skills East Sussex initiative

2. • 293 applications submitted to the Careers & Enterprise Company
Investment Fund. Five stage selection process.
• 33 projects have been funded nationally (total funding value £5m).
These are mainly national projects.
• Seven funded projects will deliver in the South East. There is a strong
engineering bias. We need to make sure that we benefit from these
projects and that they support Progress!
• All projects need to integrate with/support the work of the Enterprise
Coordinators and their Adviser network
Context

3. Project summary
• £200,000 of Careers & Enterprise Investment Fund secured
• Match funding of £113,00 provided by ESCC, HEFCE, Costain CH2M
• Project partners include: SCTP, SLN, Tomorrow’s Engineers, Medway
Youth Trust, Horizon, SDCA, ESCC, Love Local Jobs. Plumpton Agricultural
College, Sussex Downs and Sussex Coast Colleges will also be involved via
STEMfest elements and to deliver Apprenticeship/Traineeships
• The project will run from April 2016-July 2017
• Activities included in the project can support/be integrated into the
careers plans being created by the Enterprise Advisers and their matched
schools

4. What must the project achieve?
• Reduce number of NEET young people in the county
• Increase take up of STEM at Level 3, with a particular focus
on A Levels and women into STEM
• Increase the number of young people taking up
Apprenticeships
• Help young people become work ready
• Improved access to work experience opportunities

5. Improving the take up of STEM at Level 3
In 2016, STEMfest will include:
•3 university lectures for 300 young people (aged 16-18)
•15 in-school activity days (reaching 450+ students in years 8 & 9)
•1 teacher / employer networking evening, 30 attendees
•5 STEM Ambassador talks in schools, each for 150 students
•1 Big Bang @ event for at least 750 year 8 & 9 students
•3 HE lectures for years 9 & 10 young people (outreach lectures delivered within
activity days at the colleges).
•One large Continuing Professional Development event for STEM teachers (90
teachers)
In 2017, this programme will repeat with the addition of an invention engineering
competition. STEMfest will become STEAMfest, linking to the SES Creative &
Digital Task Group, bringing artists/programmers together with engineers.

6. • 32 Apprenticeship promotion sessions in East Sussex Schools
reaching 960 young people in years 8 & 9
• Training for 60 Apprentice Ambassadors
• 1:1 support with accessing an Apprenticeship for 210 young people
• 120 young people supported on pre-Apprenticeship work readiness
programmes (2 x public sector programmes, 4 x sector focus:
engineering, construction, health and social care, land based and
visitor economy). 60 moving into an Apprenticeship.
• 40 NEET young people supported on 4 pre-Traineeship
programmes. 20 moving into a traineeship.
Improving take up of Apprenticeships

7. Improving preparedness for work
• Work experience CPD for 90 school CEIAG leads
• Bespoke work experience for 240 NEET young people
• Work place visits for 300 year 9 students
• One week of work experience for 1800 year 10 & 11 students
• 1:1 transition support for 740 young people aged 17-18 who
are NEET or at risk of NEET

8. Next steps
• Due diligence and contracting work underway
• Contract to be issued in March
• Partnership agreements, project plan, evaluation framework, risk
assessment, comms plan being drawn up
• First steering group meeting to take place in April
• STEMfest and work experience to run immediately with other
elements delivered from July.