A NETWORK of volunteers from Oxfordshire’s business community will connect school children to the world of work.

Known as enterprise advisors, they will be drawn from private firms, the public sector, small businesses and the self-employed.

One adviser will be attached to each of the county’s 38 state secondary schools and further education colleges.

Working with schools’ senior management, they will help bridge the gap between education and employers.

This will include using local labour market statistics to identify what jobs are on offer.

The programme, part of a national scheme, will be run by Opportunities to Inspire (O2i).

O2i enterprise coordinator Rebecca Moore, who will help recruit advisers, said: “I’m going to find the best, most engaged professionals in Oxfordshire and let them see what a wonderful difference they can make to our schools and students.”

Enterprise advisers will recruit a team of volunteers from their own network of contacts but also from a pool of business people working with O2i.

O2i, part of Oxfordshire County Council and backed by the Local Enterprise Partnership, already acts as a matchmaker between education and employers.

Its website – o2i.org/browse- opportunities – encourages teachers to post opportunities for volunteers from businesses to interact with students.

These include talks, mentoring, problem-solving projects, inter- active workshops, site visits, advice on writing CVs, mock interviews and work experience.

Secondary schools involved in the scheme include The Oxford Academy in Littlemore.

Lee Edwards, head of business and IT at the school, said: “I’ve used O2i for three different business revision sessions in the run up to GCSEs.

“The business volunteers planned a set of real-life, problem-solving tasks linked to their particular businesses and to the topic theory which the students had revised.

“The volunteers from business really pushed the students to link theories in context, activities included group working, mini-feedback sessions, problem solving with justification and Q&A sessions at the end of each workshop, so students understood the business purpose which each volunteer represented.”

Ms Moore added: “It’s so important to make school work relevant for young people – to ensure they see why they’re learning and to help them get excited about their careers beyond school.”

The enterprise adviser scheme, announced by the Government-backed Careers and Enterprise Company, will be run in Oxfordshire by O2i, with match-funding of up to £100,000.

O2i project director Helen Haines said: “We know that the more interactions young people have with professionals throughout their schooling the more engaged they are, the more knowledgeable they become about their options and the greater employability skills they have when they leave school.”

OxLEP chief executive Nigel Tipple said: “This programme will facilitate strong partnerships between employers and schools and support young people through their learning journey.”

For more information, contact info@o2i.org.