The
improvement in the GCSE exams pass rate at schools was three times the national
average in areas where business expertise was used to help poorly performing
local education authorities (LEAs), according to the CBI.
At
the first CBI Public Services Dinner, to be held at a school in London
today, CBI director general Digby
Jones will cite early evidence of the positive impact that business has had in
helping turn around failing LEAs.
He
will argue that a more effective education system could be achieved through
increasing the use of partnerships between the public sector and business.
Jones
is expected to say that LEAs can make a big difference between pupils achieving
their true potential or not. And he will emphasise the important role that
business can play as too many young people are still leaving school without the
basic skills required of them by employers.
Preliminary
findings from a CBI study into the involvement of business in education, which
will be published in the autumn, show that business expertise can help achieve
a significant increase in performance.
The
research looked at nine LEAs from across the country where the government had
intervened to create a partnership with business to support performance
improvement: Bradford; Hackney; Haringey; Islington; Leeds;
Southwark; Swindon; Walsall; and Waltham
Forest.
In
these areas, the proportion of pupils achieving an average of five or more
GCSEs at A-C grade has increased at almost three times the national average on
a year-on-year basis.
