Calling All Employers: Why Partnering with TMC Makes Business Sense
If you are a Greater Manchester employer with a role to play in shaping the city’s future workforce, there has never been a better time to partner with The Manchester College.
Supporting a student’s journey into employment benefits both sides. You help a young person develop the skills and confidence they need for the workplace. You gain access to the talent, enthusiasm and fresh ideas your business needs.
Skills shortages continue to affect employers across the UK. From engineering and construction to digital technology, businesses are finding it harder to recruit people with the right skills.
The skills shortage is just as relevant to employers across Greater Manchester. Working with a further education provider gives businesses a practical way to help address these challenges while influencing the skills of the people they may recruit in the future.
We make it easy for you
Getting involved does not have to require a significant investment of time or resources. Our employer partnerships team supports you from your first enquiry onwards. We will help you find a clear and straightforward approach that works for your business and the coming academic year.
More than 1,000 employer partners already work with us across Greater Manchester, and 97% of our students complete a meaningful work placement before finishing their course. This scale is possible because employers help us to understand the skills businesses need. They bring their expertise to the way we deliver learning in areas including engineering, digital, health and social care.
Structured ways to get involved
One of the most popular ways to work with us is through an industry placement. This gives a student the opportunity to take on a meaningful role within your day-to-day operations or contribute to a specific project.
For T Level students, placements still involve a minimum of 315 hours, typically spread across 45 to 60 days. This gives students enough time to gain genuine workplace experience. It also allows employers to see the value students can bring.
If you want to develop your relationship with the college further, our Industry Excellence Partnership recognises employer involvement at different levels.
Centre of Excellence employers can support students through activities such as shorter placements, industry workshops and site visits. Industry Excellence Academy employers have an even greater role, working with our teaching teams to co-create or co-deliver elements of the curriculum, as well as providing an industry placement.
Apprenticeships offer another valuable route if your business wants to recruit and develop talent directly. Whether you are taking on an apprentice for the first time or looking to develop an existing employee into a more senior position, apprenticeships can help you build skills around your specific business needs.
Alongside our own apprenticeship provision, our partner Total People works with employers across the region to design and deliver apprenticeship programmes that fit around their organisations.
More flexibility than ever
If you considered offering industry placements in the past but found the logistics difficult, it could be worth taking another look. Updated government guidance gives providers and employers more flexibility when arranging placements. This includes the ability to incorporate remote hours and, in some circumstances, involve more than one employer in a student’s placement.
This provides greater scope to build placements around the realities of your business. Shift patterns, site access requirements and distributed teams do not necessarily have to prevent you from offering valuable workplace experience.
The important thing is that students still gain meaningful exposure to the workplace and the opportunity to develop the skills they will need in their future careers.
What is in it for your business?
An industry placement or employer partnership can become an important part of your talent pipeline. Giving a student extended experience within your organisation allows them to understand your values, culture and way of working. It also gives you the opportunity to see their skills and potential before making a future recruitment decision.
It can also benefit your existing employees. Supporting a student provides a practical CPD opportunity for staff who take on mentoring or supervisory responsibilities.
Inducting and supporting a learner can strengthen employees’ coaching, communication and leadership skills. Contributing to assessment reviews can provide further opportunities to develop these skills.
If you already employ an apprentice, an industry placement student can also provide additional support while your apprentice is attending college for off-the-job training. This can help businesses maintain capacity while apprentices continue to develop their skills.
There are benefits beyond recruitment and workforce development, too. We promote our employer partnerships through our success stories, across our six campuses and through employer events. Strong partnerships can also develop into case studies that showcase your organisation’s commitment to supporting the next generation of talent.
You do not have to be a large organisation to make a difference.
A small business offering a handful of placement days each year, or providing a mentor for an apprentice, can make just as valuable a contribution as a national employer. What matters is a genuine commitment to giving young people the opportunity to experience real work and develop their skills.
Working with The Manchester College can also support your organisation’s wider employment commitments. Employer partnerships can provide tangible evidence for the Recruitment characteristic of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter. They also give your business an active role in addressing the skills shortages affecting the wider region.
Ready to get involved?
Employers play an essential role in helping young people prepare for life after college. Our most recent Ofsted inspection recognised our strong contribution to meeting local skills needs, with employer involvement playing an important role in how our courses are designed and delivered.
Join the employers already helping to shape Greater Manchester’s future workforce and discover which type of partnership could work best for your organisation.
If you are already an employer partner, you can find clear guidance on supporting a student safely and effectively. If you are new to working with us, contact our employer partnerships team to discuss the options available for the coming academic year.