Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales - Future Destinations Project Skills Build

Future Destinations Project - Skills Build

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Planning and Organisation Activity

3. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Activity

4. Creativity and Innovation Activity

Introduction

This Skills Build provides three activities, each one concentrating on one of the Integral Skills – Planning and Organisation; Critical Thinking and Problem Solving ; and Creativity and Innovation . They will involve the Specific Skills, shown in the table, that you will need to demonstrate in the Future Destinations Project Assessment. Using your Personal Effectiveness skills, you will be able to reflect, gather feedback and evaluate how well you are doing.

Integral Skill Specific Skills

1.4 – Schedule activities and tasks.

Planning and Organisation

1.5 – Select and utilise appropriate project management techniques and/or tools.

1.6 – Define priorities and success criteria.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

2.2 – Apply methods to solve complex problems, including focused research techniques to gather primary and secondary information.

2.7 – Construct responses that are evidence based, persuasive and convincing.

2.9 – Make valid judgements and reasoned conclusions.

Creativity and Innovation

3.1 – Generate ideas independently.

3.2 – Generate new ideas by sharing, disseminating, and building on collaborative creative thinking.

3.3 – Make connections between different information in order to support outcomes.

3.4 – Use creative thinking to analyse information and ideas.

3.5 – Consider the feasibility in implementing ideas and outcomes.

3.6 – Apply objective decisionmaking techniques to justify selection of the most appropriate idea, including the views of others where appropriate.

3.8 – Develop innovative communications that are appropriate to the audience.

4.1 – Analyse how own skills can be applied and/or developed to be personally effective.

Personal Effectiveness

4.5 – Respond to feedback and, when collaborating, give feedback to others.

4.6 – Reflect and evaluate own behaviours, performance and outcomes when working independently and/or collaboratively.

Planning and Organisation Practice Activity

Planning a Jobs Fair Scenario

According to CIPDA (15 November 2021), 47% of employers have vacancies that they are finding hard to fill, and 27% expect the number of hard-to-fill vacancies to increase in the next six months. A jobs fair is an increasingly popular way for employers to fill job vacancies. Usually, jobs fairs are held over the course of a day in large indoor spaces. Employers set up stands and talk to potential recruits. If an employer is impressed, they may invite the potential recruit to an interview or offer them a job there and then!

Jobs fairs take a lot of planning and organising; you need to manage the people attending, which means getting the logistics right and ensuring clear communication. There are also important health and safety considerations, along with key organisational tasks such as deciding upon and then keeping track of who has

been invited and who is attending, as well as bringing along any equipment employers may need. It is also important to capture feedback from everyone who attends to determine whether the event was a success and how it can be improved to navigate future events.

You are invited to plan a jobs fair for your school – this could be for pupils from year 11 up to year 13, or for your college.

Testing Specific Skills

1.4 – Schedule activities and tasks.

1.5 – Select and utilise appropriate project management techniques and/or tools.

Tasks 1 and 2

Task 2

1.6 – Define priorities and success criteria. Task 3

Tasks

1. Organising a successful jobs fair requires attention to detail, creativity, and strategic planning. There are many decisions that will need to be made:

• Date/time

• Venue/location

• Marketing

• Equipment

• Catering

• Staffing

You may wish to gather research by collaborating with other students to help you determine a list of all the activities and tasks that will need to be completed before and on the day of the jobs fair. Don’t forget to include essentials such as carrying out a risk assessment, setting up tables for the employers and providing name badges.

2. Using project management tools/techniques, create a project plan that clearly prioritises and schedules your activities and tasks that will support the project being completed.

What project management tools/techniques could I use?

3. To determine whether your jobs fair is a success, come up with three key performance indicators that you hope to achieve from running a jobs fair. Create a way to measure whether your jobs fair has achieved its key performance indicators.

What are key performance indicators?

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Practice Activity

Where to live?

Scenario

Once you complete your full-time education, you may want to consider where you would like to potentially live in the future. Understanding the cost of living, job opportunities and home prices can help you plan for your future destination. Considering your new home’s proximity to work is an important factor, as well as transportation and commuting options.

Think about whether the area matches your lifestyle – for example, check for local restaurants if you enjoy eating out regularly, or gyms if you like to work out.

Research suggests that these are the six most important factors to consider:

1. Employment opportunities

2. Affordability (e.g. house prices)

3. Crime and safety

4. Amenities – Nearby shops and facilities

5. Proximity to family and friends

6. Commuting and transportation

Analysing data is an important aspect of the workplace and of our everyday lives. There is so much data available to us and it is essential that we are able decide what is relevant and appropriate.

Both StatsWales and The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produce vast amounts of statistics that can help you make decisions at national, regional, and local level. Use the links below to see the types of data available for some of these factors.

Testing Specific Skills

2.2 – Apply methods to solve complex problems, including focused research techniques to gather primary and secondary information.

2.7 – Construct responses that are evidence based, persuasive and convincing.

2.9 – Make valid judgements and reasoned conclusions.

Tasks

This is a map showing the regions of the UK.

Task 1

Task 3

Task 2

1. Pick three regions that appeal to you as potential places to live and work. Carry out research using ONS, StatsWales and any other reliable sources of secondary and primary data about:

• employment opportunities (e.g. which industries/jobs are most common)

• affordability (e.g. average price of house within the region and average wage rate for the region)

• crime rates (e.g. how likely are you to be affected by crime and which crimes are most prevalent?)

• amenities (e.g. what does the region offer?)

• proximity to family and friends (e.g. roughly how far would friends and family be?)

• commute and transportation (e.g. is there good public transport available?)

What other sources of information could I use to find secondary and primary data?

2. Based on the data you have collected, list the factors that are important to you in helping decide which of the three regions is your preference. Make valid judgements about the three regions and produce a reasoned conclusion for your decision.

How do I decide what other factors are important to me when deciding on a potential area to live?

3. Display the data you have gathered in charts/graphs/diagrams and use them to produce a persuasive infographic on the region you have selected. Include visual information on the factors that have led you to this decision.

How do I select the most appropriate charts/graphs/diagrams to display information?

Creativity and Innovation Practice Activity

Opportunity to be self-employed Scenario

Towns and cities across Wales are being transformed due to regeneration programmes. These regeneration programmes aim to breathe fresh life into buildings, areas, and communities. Derelict buildings can be unsightly, dangerous and can attract crime, but once transformed can become fantastic community assets.

The Corporation in Canton, Cardiff is an example of a successful regeneration. It was built in 1889 and traded as a public house and hotel. However, in March 2016, the licensee decided not to renew their tenancy and it closed its doors.

However, this landmark building has been regenerated! The new owner has turned it into a venue with units that can be leased by people wishing to set up their own businesses.

Self-employment is an exciting opportunity and is important to the Welsh economy. The number of self-employed people in Wales has increased and now accounts for nearly one in seven workers across Wales. There are many benefits of being selfemployed. Working for yourself means that you are the decision maker and will have the freedom and satisfaction in seeing your ideas come together. You can also set your own hours which may support your work/life balance and enhance your overall quality of life. Your earning potential is also much higher when you are self-employed. However, there are drawbacks too. You won’t receive employee benefits like sick pay or holiday pay and, as you are starting from nothing, your income can be irregular, and you may not generate a profit. This is why it is so important for an entrepreneur to come up with an idea for a business that makes you stand out from other businesses, so customers buy your products or services.

The new owner of Corp Market (formerly known as The Corporation pub) has transformed the interior of the building while maintaining the historic façade. They have created 24 units that people can run their businesses from. Each unit is 4m x 3m wide and has a contemporary metal grill door and wall so customers can see inside. Businesses trading at the Corp Market include a barber shop and a bookshop and café.

Barber shop Business unit

Testing Specific Skills

Creativity and Innovation

3.1 – Generate ideas independently. Task 1

3.2 – Generate new ideas by sharing, disseminating, and building on collaborative creative thinking.

3.3 – Make connections between different information in order to support outcomes.

3.4 – Use creative thinking to analyse information and ideas.

Task 3

Task 5

Task 1

Task 5

Task 3

Task 5

3.5 – Consider the feasibility in implementing ideas and outcomes. Task 2/3 (loosely)

3.6 – Apply objective decision-making techniques to justify selection of the most appropriate idea, including the views of others where appropriate.

3.8 – Develop innovative communications that are appropriate to the audience.

Criteria

Task 2

Task 6

You have been given the opportunity to lease one of these units but need to have a feasible business idea. There are conditions with leasing a unit. Your ideas must:

• be connected to Wales

• offer something different to other similar businesses that you are aware of

• have set up costs that do not exceed £5000.

Tasks

1. Come up with at least four business ideas. Describe the ideas and how they fulfil each criteria. Collaborate with others to gather feedback on your ideas.

What techniques could I use to come up with ideas?

How can I gather feedback?

2. Use appropriate decision-making techniques to select and justify your preferred idea and consider the feasibility of your business proposal.

What decision-making techniques could prove useful? For example, SODAS, SWOT.

3. Develop your proposal by coming up with a business name, a layout design and description for the unit. Share your name, layout design and description with another member of your class. Respond to feedback and make changes.

4. Talk to other members of your class. Find out about their selected proposal for one of the units and tell them about yours. Once you have spoken to at least five other people, select one person to pair up with to complete Tasks 5 and 6.

5. As a pair, discuss how you could innovatively merge your ideas together so that customers may shop and spend money at both units. Use collaborative creative thinking to build on ideas and analyse opportunities. Could you offer discounts, promotions, joint events or combine what you are selling? For example, the bookshop could host events such as reading books to an audience or offer drinks and snacks whilst people are getting their hair cut at the barber shop.

What collaborative creative thinking techniques could you use?

6. Develop an innovative communication that advertises your idea for Task 5.

What types of innovative communication could I use? How is it innovative?