SSI Services launches school partnership programme with local school to tie learning to real-world experience and help prepare the West Midlands’ future workforce
Walsall based SSI Services (UK) Limited will begin implementing a school partnership programme for local students at St Michael’s Church of England High School in Rowley Regis as part of their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility for 2017/18. The opportunity to gain real-world experience in business will be combined with academics to help prepare pupils to succeed in college and their future career.
St Michael’s is a Full Service Extended School and prides itself in providing all students with a wide range of learning opportunities and excellent levels of care, guidance and support.
SSI Services is the specialist contracting arm of South Staffordshire Plc. providing a broad range of specialist services from design through to installation, testing and repair to long-term maintenance contracts. The business, through its operating companies, provides compliance and regulatory required specialist inspection, maintenance and design/build services to the public and private sector.
Customers include UK water and energy utilities, operators and regulators of critical infrastructure, major contractors and facilities management companies working across the water, wastewater, water hygiene, rail, highways, construction and local authority markets.
“Partnering with SSI Services will give St Michael’s a unique opportunity to ensure that our students have an experience that can help better prepare them for the future,” said Jayne Gray, Headteacher of St Michael’s. “Our goal for the programme is to help students apply the academic skills they are learning in school to solve real-world issues and, ultimately, show them how their high school education directly relates to their career interests and ambitions.”
This programme will be the first of its kind for SSI Services and has been developed to integrate students’ studies with career-based learning and real-world experiences to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed beyond school. The partnership has been designed to show students exactly how their high school education leads to their next academic stage or career steps.
“We are excited to be giving St Michael’s students more exposure to one of the UK’s major industries and giving them a better understanding of the types of career paths and jobs that are available to them,” said Dave Taylor, Managing Director at SSI Services. “We view this partnership as an investment in potential future SSI and South Staffordshire PLC employees by helping students develop the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in college and beyond.”
In addition, SSI Services has committed to supporting various initiatives for St Michael’s including fundraising for specially adapted gym equipment and the sponsorship of the school’s football teams and minibuses.