The School Business Community Partnership Programme - FAQ’s

• The NBBEN can act as the link between a school and a developed initiative. For example, if a school is looking for a mentoring programme, the NBBEN can link the school to a community mentoring programme.
• The NBBEN can enhance an existing programme. For example, if a school has a gardening programme, the NBBEN can source industry relevant mentors, products and sponsorship to enhance this gardening programme.
• The NBBEN can work with stakeholders to develop an initiative from scratch. For example, the NBBEN is currently working with education providers, industry and the community to design a hospitality programme

Partnership Brokers are able to work with all types of schools, at any age, on partnerships which have been designed to target students who may be disengaging and to add depth and interest to the curriculum. They cannot work with or give advice to individual students.

Youth Connections (YC) is a sister program to Partnership Brokers. Youth Connections work directly with young people who are disengaged from education or at risk. Partnership Brokers and YC teams work collaboratively to improve the educational outcomes for young people. If you would like to explore the possibilities of how you or your organisation/school might become involved please contact your nearest office as we’d love to hear from you.

Partnership Brokers can help your business engage with education and training providers to suit your needs. Businesses can benefit from:

• Increasing their presence in the local community
• Enhanced credibility in the community
• Professional development
• Staff retention and recruitment
• Developing/ updating industry course
• Improved operational efficiency
• Using mentoring skills within the workforce
• Publicity
• Building brand awareness
• Greater innovation
• Better access to information and different networks

No matter what your interest is in the education and training agenda we welcome your call.

Schools and business can partner by:

• Connecting learning in the classroom to real life applications
• Bringing expertise into the classroom
• Supporting different learning styles
• Helping to broaden and deepen learning experiences
• Supporting mentoring activities
• Facilitating linkages between education and career opportunities
• Facilitating improved employability, career development and life skills of young people

The partnership Broker is not a funding body, however we may be able facilitate small requests related to planning initial meetings. Part of brokering these partnerships will be finding the resources/funding opportunities to allow them to function.

The partnership Brokers will not be delivering service in schools. However, Partnership Brokers are available to help engage parents, community and business to deliver the service.