Top GCSE marks of A* and A could be replaced by a one to four numerical scale, education secretary Michael Gove told MPs on Wednesday, as one option to distinguish between high achieving candidates and make a break with the previous grades awarded.

“Rather than having A*, A and B, you might have one, two, three, four, and it might be the case that one, two, three, four cover the band of achievement that is currently A* and A,” Gove told the Commons education select committee.

Changing the marking scale “would help refix the level at which people could recognise outstanding behaviour,” he said.

Gove’s comments add some detail to the department for education’s desire to change the marking scheme as part of its reforms to GCSEs, although no decision has been made and consultation with exam standards regulator Ofqual would have to be taken into account.

“As we have stated previously, the new more rigorous GCSEs will include more demanding assessment structures. Ofqual is considering how we can improve the current A* to G grading system. This is one option. Ofqual will be consulting on a range of options shortly,” a government source said.

Gove also announced that some plans for controversial reforms to the national curriculum and GCSEs could be watered down, as he acknowledged that criticism of the changes from teachers and experts was being taken into account.

The education secretary told the Commons education select committee that he was considering scraping plans for single, tougher, GCSE exams and that he might bow to arguments favouring retaining a tiered system with two exams aimed at pupils of different abilities.

“My overall instinct is to try and move away from tiering. But of course, I want to take a pragmatic approach,” he told the MPs. “If the strong advice, not just from [standards watchdog] Ofqual but also one of the awarding bodies, is that it would be easier to have more reliable assessment if you had some form of separation, then I will take that into account.”

What form the second tier exam would take remained under consideration, with Gove suggesting that it could be altered to a stand-alone test with a lower-grade ceiling or be an extension paper.

A climbdown over the issue means the department for education would avoid an embarrassing turf war with Ofqual, which has defended the use of tiered exams.

Source: The Guardian

Theme: ‘Africa Rising’

Date: 25 May 2013

Venue: University Arms Hotel,Regent Street, Cambridge.

Time: 11am-5pm

Speakers include: 

Nicholas Okoye- President and Chief Executive Officer of Anabel Group Inc.

Jason Davies- Head of Resourcing for Africa ABSA/Barclays

Tom Ilube - Founder and Chairman of the African Gifted Foundation

René Carayol - CEO – Inspired Leaders Network (ILN)

Samuel Kasumu - Founder and Trustee, Elevation Networks

Osamede Okhomina - Chief Executive Officer of Equity Energy Resources

Topics to be discussed: 

• Employment opportunities in key African countries
• Business start-up opportunities
• Moving back home
• Networking for success

Register online to secure your free place

#DB8 – Compulsory Voting

With fewer policies being written for young people because of their lack of turnout and conversely, older people getting more attention due to the high numbers voting every year, is it time that we address this shift in power? Is compulsory voting for young people the way to solve this problem? Or would it only make matters worse.

The debate is scheduled for Wednesday 22nd May, 18.30 – 20.30 in Committee Room 4

Participants 

Organisations: IPPR, Reform, Ipsos Mori

Join us at the Houses of Parliament with guests from the IPPR, Professors of Politics, various politicians and, as always, young people, to discuss whether the youth vote has been ignored for too long.

#DB8 – Personal Finance Education

This debate we will be looking at preventions opposed to cures. One prevention many young people expressed would be to have a detailed, fun and engaging personal finance education at school, so they felt confident about making informed decisions when it comes to the management of their personal finances.

The debate is scheduled for Tuesday 4th June, 18.30 – 20.30 in Committee Room 10.

The panel will feature representatives from MyBnk, pfeg, Lord Kennedy, Liz Trust MP (hopefully), A young person who has received personal finance education and one that has not.

Participants 

Organisations: pfeg, MyBnk, Citizens Advice Bureau, RBS.

Parliamentarians: Baroness Royal, Lord Kennedy, Lord Newby, Lord Story, Lord Roberts, Liz Truss MP (TBC), Fiona Bruce MP and a few others TBC.

Others: Professor Dolan – Prof of Behavioural Sciences at LSE (TBC), Linda Jack – former Youth Policy Adviser at the FSA/MAS

Find out more and register here 

JUNIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Contract Type: Part Time, 3 days a week.

LOCATION: London

Salary: £16,000 – £18,000 pro rata p.a.

We have a great opportunity for a designer with excellent offline and online design skills across a range of platforms and media.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The role demands a consistent and accurate approach to layout, process and design to fulfil the briefs through to completion, within brand guidelines and within an agreed timeframe. You must be confident in delivering on creative briefs and will be expected to take personal responsibility for allocated tasks.

The successful candidate will have experience in liaising with basic level print production, reviewing existing marketing and communications material for both external and internal end users. In essence, you will be a brand guardian who will take ownership of existing design setup and procedures and will help steer and improve our media communication in future.

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented designer to take their skills to the next level whilst making a difference.

Download Job Specification Here

TO APPLY:

Please send a CV along with a link to your most recent portfolio.

Please also take a look at our current campaigns website: www.ENCampaigns.com and design a poster promoting one of our initiatives that are on the website.

Please send both to recruitment@elevationnetworks.org quoting job reference: JGD1

DEADLINE: May 27^th 2013. 

Young people are 10% less likely to be in work today than before the recession, the TUC has said ahead of official data tomorrow that is expected to show stubbornly persistent unemployment.

Only 58% of 18-24 year olds found work in 2013, compared with almost 65% in 2009, the unions said, leaving a shortfall of 395,000 jobs.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Ministers never stop claiming that a record number of people are in work. What they fail to mention is that it is more down to population growth than as a result of their employment policies.”

“It’s particularly worrying that 18-24-year-olds have not benefited from the recent improvement in the jobs market and they are losing out again as unemployment is rising.”

The battle for work is exemplified by data showing that as many as 45 people are applying for every low-skilled job, published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on Monday. Many employers overwhelmed with applications told the CIPD they would not even consider school leavers or the long term unemployed.

The number of people looking for work rose by 70,000 between December and February, according to the latest count, taking the unemployment tally to 2.56 million people, 7.9% of the labour force.

Economists expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged when updated statistics are published on Wednesday.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight, said: “The underlying growth performance still seems insufficient to generate many new jobs in the private sector given the extended weakness of the economy and relatively high unemployment levels.” He predicted that unemployment could rise to 8.2%, or 2.68 million people, by the end of the year.

According to the TUC, women over 50 have seen the biggest improvement in their employment prospects, as rising state pension ages delay retirement. An extra 166,800 50-64-year-olds stayed in work in 2013 compared to 2008. The TUC is calling for a job guarantee for every young person who has been out of work for six months.

“Ministers must do far more to help young people back into work. The current schemes are clearly not working. It’s time for a bold new approach,” said O’Grady.

A spokesperson at the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Tens of thousands of young people are benefiting from our schemes which help them get a job, set up their own business and gain experience to boost their CV and we’re offering employers up to £2,275 if they take on an unemployed young person. We know youth unemployment remains a big challenge but there are now 65,000 fewer 18-24-year-olds claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance compared to this time last year and over the same period youth unemployment has fallen by 46,000.”

Source: The Guardian.

His latest report says those over 30 should be eligible for start-up loans.

It is one of several proposals which PM David Cameron said would help “fire up business growth” in the UK.

Other proposals put forward by Lord Young include making it easier for small businesses to bid for £230bn a year of public sector contracts.

Another is the creation of a £30m voucher scheme to encourage firms to get expansion advice.

In his second report to the prime minister – entitled Growing Your Business – former trade and employment secretary Lord Young also suggests a greater role for business schools in the local economy.

‘Raise aspirations’

Lord Young’s report focuses on micro-businesses – those which have fewer than 10 employees and which make up 95% of all businesses in the UK.

“We have one of the best environments in the world for the creation of new firms,” he said.

“What this report endeavours to do is to help and encourage all those new firms to now take on their first employees and grow.

“Growing our smallest businesses would transform our economy – they are the vital 95%.

“If just half of the UK’s micro businesses took on an additional member of staff, unemployment would be reduced to almost zero. We need to raise the aspirations and confidence of these businesses and give them the tools to grow.”

There should also be better marketing of government schemes to support new and developing businesses, he says.

‘Wealth creators’

Hayley Conboy, CBI principal policy adviser for enterprise, said Lord Young had rightly identified that the government “needs to earmark funding to effectively market existing finance and support schemes”.

And the British Chambers of Commerce said small firms needed support and encouragement.

Dr Adam Marshall, director of policy at the BCC said: “Small and micro businesses will only be able to fulfil their full potential once measures are put in place to help them access the finance, skills and services they need to grow.

“Lord Young has identified a number of these measures in his report and we are pleased to see him address the problem of access to finance which is still hurting the growth potential of many firms.

“But the focus must now be on getting these proposals off the ground so they can actually make a real difference to the business community, and in turn, drive the economic recovery.”

 Read more here

“Sales for SMEs” is all about how to sell as much as you can, as fast as you can!

The session will equip young entrepreneurs with skills and tips to maximise the sales of their products or services. This is key for anyone who is self-employed as selling is the backbone of any business. Top sales techniques can mean the difference between a million-dollar business and a mediocre one.

The session will be delivered by top sales professionnals, with a keynote session from Charlotte Howe, the Head of Global Sales for LUSH Ltd.

The event will cover:

• Cold calling: How to generate business and not scare people away!
• Identifying your target market and tailouring your sales strategy to suit your customers.
• What your customers want and how and fulfil those needs!
• Pricing Strategy
• How/whether or not to use promotions and offers.
• Creating an Elevatior Pitch: ‘Sell’ yourself in 2 minutes!
• Dress to impress! How first impressions can affect sales.

We would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all who donated and supported us.

To celebrate going over our target, we had a team lunch on the 7th of May. Here are a few pictures.

A sharp rise in fees in recent years has left the independent education system so exclusive that children fail to mix with peers “who don’t have parents of substantial means”, said Lord Adonis.

In a speech, he said most major private schools had originally been established as charities for the education of the poor and under-privileged but have “entirely divorced themselves from these groups” over the last century.

Schools now charge between £11,000-a-year for day pupils and £34,000 for boarding pupils, it was claimed.

But Lord Adonis, who was schools minister under the last Government, said that the price tag “puts private education out of the reach of the overwhelming majority of people of this country” and often results in schools being filled by rich foreigners.

Speaking to the Brighton College education conference, he called on all private schools to get involved with the running of academies – state-funded institutions managed independent of local council control.

He said the scheme, which is already backed by schools such as Wellington, Eton, Sevenoaks, Uppingham, Dulwich, Marlborough and Brighton, was necessary to help bridge the “big historical division” between the state and fee-paying sector.

Lord Adonis insisted this divide had widened in recent years because of a sharp rise in fees that had resulted in the “segmentation of the professional classes, systematically, from the rest of society by means of education”.

“It is seriously disabling for students going to exclusive fee-paying schools that they see so little of society,” he said.

“They mix in a very narrow social medium. They don’t for the most part meet the most of the rest of society, including those who don’t have parents of substantial means. If what we want is a one nation society, it is not good for them and it is not good for wider society.”

An annual independent schools census – published last month – found a slight drop in the number of pupils educated in private schools after average fees soared above £14,000 for the first time.

Read more here 

What is ‘Barclays money skills Champions’?

Barclays Money Skills ‘champions’ is an innovative peer education project designed to build the money management skills of young people aged 16-25.

We are looking for 16-25 year olds who are interested in improving their financial management and educating others.

By the end of the training, all champions will have an increased knowledge of money management and peer education.

This training will cover a range of topics including

• Budgeting
• Saving and investing
• Everyday Banking
• Debt prevention
• Your rights

Programme Break Down

• 16 hours Compulsory training by a trained Barclays money skills Support worker, Citizens Advice and a Barclays Volunteer. (Training will be over 3 days)
• After 16 hours of training, you would be expected to peer educate 20 NEET’s  (Not in Employment, Education or Training) on Money Skills. Peer education can be done formally and informally.
• On completion of training and peer educating, participants will become certified Barclays money skills champions and receive £20.00 courtesy of Barclays at the end of the training.

Who qualifies to become a Champion?

As long as you are 16-25 you qualify. All trainees will receive training and material so no previous financial knowledge or training is needed.

There will be a number of cycles for the Training.

Training Dates for June and July (the Next set of training dates will be released in July)

17-19^th June 2013

01-03^rd July 2013

17-19^th July 2013

To apply for one of our training sessions or to register your interest for future dates click here

For questions and more information email BMSC@elevationnetworks.org