About BELS
BELS is a consortium of Education Business Link Organisations (EBLOs) and national partners in South London that is primarily funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
The consortium members are:
- Bromley Education Business Partnership
- Croydon Education Business Partnership
- Kingston & Merton Education Business Partnership
- Richmond Education Business Partnership
- Sutton Education Business Partnership
- Young Enterprise
The associate consortium members include:
- Construction Industry Training Board
- Enterprise Education Trust
- Kingston Local Authority
- Merton Local Authority
- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network
- Trident from Edexcel
- Way To Work
BELS believes that it is the responsibility of the whole community, business and education working together, to prepare the young people of South London for adult and working lives which will enable them to be:
- Equipped for work when they enter employment
- Achievers at their highest level
- Well informed about business, the economy and the society in which they live.
In the year to July 2007 BELS has:
- Enhanced the experience and improved the employability of 946 young people engaged on ESF funded programmes by providing high quality specialist training in vocational areas and personal finance;
- Successfully completed its participation in the Pan-London CRE8 project where 90 learners across South London were offered the opportunity to work with employers in the creative media industry;
- Trained 30 specialist mentors to work with disadvantaged young people across South London;
- Continued its research into how to improve the employability of 16 – 19 year olds in South London including a pilot study that examined the integration of an Employability Framework into a variety of post 16 courses, vocational and academic;
- Published a Business Toolkit for New Diplomas Work Experience that was developed using the insights of over 40 employers across the London region;
- Supported over 14,000 young people from years 10 and 11, 14 – 16 year olds working towards Key Stage 4, into quality work experience placements for periods of one to two weeks;
- Received support from an additional 841 employers across South London for employer involvement and enterprise activities with local schools and colleges;
- Enabled over 13,000 young people to engage in EBL activities;
- Delivered 314 professional development placements (PDPs) for teachers to experience more about current best practice in their subject areas.
