Nexus In-School: Turning work placements into life changing opportunities

Every year we support young people who are ready to start work, but who are not yet old enough to leave school. Our Nexus In-School programme provides a hybrid learning/employment solution for young people – for two days per week they devote their in-school time to passing core English and maths GCSEs and the remaining three days per week is spent gaining employability skills and valuable experience of work.

For many, Nexus In-School becomes one of the most important opportunities of their life.

Over the years we have seen countless young people transform their lives in a matter of weeks. By developing work-based skills they thrive and grow, which in turn creates enthusiastic, hardworking and confident young employees. By the end of the placement, our employers usually wonder how they ever coped without them!

A Pre-Apprenticeship Programme

Many of the companies that we work with use Nexus In-School as a no-cost ‘trial-run’ pre-apprenticeship programme. Employers get to find out if an apprenticeship is right for their business and the placement can be used as an extended job interview for potential candidates.

Did you benefit from a placement when you were younger?

Many of our employers comment that the students remind them of themselves or friends when they were that age.

Think about what would have helped you navigate the last year of high school? Perhaps you did attend a work placement in your teens, and learned what life at work was really about? Perhaps it helped you make positive decisions about your own future? Wouldn’t you like to give a young person the same opportunity to learn work skills and life skills?

Why support Nexus In-School?

• Be part of changing a young person’s life
• An opportunity to train and mentor a young person in your trade or profession, helping to raise their aspirations and boost their confidence
• An opportunity to give something back to the local community
• Help to support a young person prepare for the world of work/an apprenticeship
• Pre-apprenticeship: a young person to train up without the financial cost of wages, and with no commitment to keep them beyond a trial period
• The option to offer an apprenticeship at the end of Year 11 - knowing the young person already has a year of experience working with you

What are the students like?

• They want to have jobs and earn money after leaving school
• Some students do not see the relevance to their future of completing a full timetable of GCSE’s, and so are less engaged in learning
• Some students feel undervalued
• Some come from very disadvantaged backgrounds and have lived through a range of adverse childhood experiences, which are usually negative indicators for their future lives. Nexus In-School helps to improve their future chances
• Often their frustration about wanting to leave school can lead to poor behaviour and low attendance but this isn’t fixed in stone. It can be changed and you and Nexus In-School can help to change it 

What support is available?

• Every student has a dedicated mentor who is there to support them throughout the year, as well as supporting you to manage your student
• Employers with little or no experience of working with a young person are supported by the mentor to look at which tasks and responsibilities their student can take on, making sure the student has a meaningful placement and you have a productive team member in your student
• Nexus In-School provides appropriate workwear, safety footwear, and other PPE (where required) meaning there is no cost to you
• Nexus In-School provides travel vouchers allowing students to travel to the workplace with no cost to you
• We can help you set up an apprenticeship (if you choose to offer your student one)
• We can connect you to C+K’s Recruitline service - a free vacancy advertising platform
• You can also take part in a wide range of careers-related events, bringing you face to face with the next generation of apprentices, employees and graduates

What our employers say:

“Giving students another way to develop social skills and a way to learn, is what world of work is about. I choose Nexus In-School because it is completely funded and is all about the future development of the individual young person.”

“Our current student is a brilliant worker. He pitches in and is happy to do whatever work we ask of him and that’s why we’re looking at offering him an apprenticeship after he has taken his GCSEs.”

“We’ve had other schools and colleges ask for placements but we feel Nexus In-School compliments our company ethos of giving back to the community and supporting the next generation.”

“You look carefully at matching the student to the correct placement/employer.”

“C+K Nexus In-School staff are honest, open and approachable and they visit regularly to check on the progress and development of the student. You are all about safeguarding. You support the young people outside of the placement too and in their family and school lives. Nexus In-School sees the personal development of the student as equally important as their understanding of the world of work.”

“When we have had a student on placement we always give them a full range of meaningful workplace experiences to prepare them for apprenticeships and real working life.”

If you are able to support the Nexus programme by offering a work placement opportunity or in any other way, please contact Sarah Moore, Nexus Programme Manager, at enquiries@ckcareers.co.uk