At its sixth annual Employer Conference entitled ‘Building on Success’ Walsall Education Business Partnership celebrated another outstanding year of work linking schools and employers. Sponsored by Kepston Limited, and held at the Education Development Centre, the event included a number of Activity Showcase sessions. These allowed the 100 delegates to sample a wide range of partnership activities featuring employers and young people working together.

The activities included:

• Teacher Placements
• WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) vehicle
• Young Enterprise
• Mentoring
• Work Experience
• ‘SuccessMaker’
• ‘Maths at Work’
• ‘Smart Choices’

The Conference also provided the opportunity for a series of presentations to be made:

Walsall EBP Employer Awards

The Employer Award is given to recognise those organisations who have given outstanding support to Walsall EBP in the previous 12 months. The award is divided into four categories, based on the number of employees in the organisation.

The winners for 2001 were:

Less than 10 employees Walsall FC Community Programme	50 to 199 employees Performance Through People
10 to 49 employees McDonald's Restaurant, Reedswood	Over 200 employees Walsall College of Arts and Technology

Valued Partner Certificates

These are awarded to those companies and schools who have given significant support to Walsall EBP programmes:

• Alumwell Nursery School
• ERA Products
• Express and Star
• First Friends Nursery
• Inland Revenue, Cannock
• Jabez Cliff
• Paxton
• Pelsall Village Primary School
• Rainbow Tots Nursery
• Walsall MBC Building Works DSO
• Walsall Observer
• Walsall Rotary Club

RM SuccessMaker - Walsall Awards

Walsall EBP has facilitated the introduction of the SuccessMaker Integrated Learning System into the majority of the Walsall secondary schools. Each school involved has been given an RM SuccessMaker Award and has been able to choose the criteria, for their particular award, so that the appropriate pupils can be rewarded for their effort and achievement. Melanie Parker, RM Training Manager presented awards to pupils from some of the schools.