Page 19 - A4 Journal 2020

Our Civic Affiliations

Covid-19 restrictions. Instead, at short notice, the training team planned and delivered a two week Regimental deployment to
the Defence Explosive Munitions School (DEMS) in Bicester with great success. The exercise saw over 100 members of the
Regiment deploy for 14 days in August to conduct a wide variety of UK based training including search skills, battle craft
syllabus (fundamental soldiering skills), marksmanship, battlefield casualty drills and leadership and development training. A
sporting competition was also run to promote cohesion and team spirit which included, among other things, a laser clay
pigeon shooting stand. Delivering the exercise whilst also ensuring compliance with Covid-19 security was a real challenge
but one that ultimately proved the concept that collective training can still be conducted safely and within government
guidelines. Now the Regiment is looking to transition back to physical training, where possible, after months of successful
virtual training as long as the ever-changing Covid-19 situation continues to permit this!”

Livery Schools Link

Over the past year, Livery Schools Link has been working on several initiatives:
1 Volunteering Platform
Livery Schools Link (LSL) has been working on its volunteer platform to encourage links between members of Livery Compa-
nies and schools for just over 4 years now. The product has worked well but it became clear that we would need some staff if
we were to expand throughout the UK. We have therefore decided that the best way forward from here was to seek partner-
ships with other organisations in the field. We are delighted to announce that we have agreed to go into partnership with two
independent charities, Speakers for Schools and Inspiring the Future. These two organisations are well established and will
provide exciting opportunities for volunteers helping to increase the employability of students in education. The two charities
work with publicly funded schools and colleges mainly in areas across the country where the young people come from social-
ly disadvantaged backgrounds. It has been agreed that volunteers will sign up through the LSL Website as before, but each
Livery volunteer will be asked to name their Livery Company on their sign-up form. This will enable an annual report to be
sent to each Livery Company on the amount of volunteering activity undertaken through this route.
2 Campaign to raise funds for Digital Devices
LSL launched a fundraising campaign in July to help buy devices and connections for disadvantaged students in schools who
have limited or no possibility of working online. The digital divide has been around for a long time and the Covid-19 crisis has
highlighted the problem with many students from disadvantaged backgrounds being unable to access online schooling. The
use of online education is likely to be used more in the future as people have become accustomed to using this and the en-
hancing opportunities it can bring alongside face to face engagement. The campaign has already attracted over £47000 in
donations and this will enable us to support 14 schools to help their students who cannot get online at present.
3 Livery Showcase
The dates of the Livery Showcase which is part of the London Careers Festival (LCF) at the Guildhall are 6-7 July 2021. The
secondary school Showcase is on Tuesday 6 July and the primary Showcase is on Wednesday 7 July. The LCF runs from the 5-
7 July and the two main events are the Livery Showcase and Apprentice 21. Apprentice 21 will be on 5 and 6 July. The 2020
LCF was held virtually in the last week of June. 72 different schools made bookings for Webinars, 91% of which were in the
Greater London area. 2500 secondary school students were booked and 300 primary school students. The resources on the
LCF website were accessed by 296 schools.
4 Livery Education Conference

The eighth Livery Education Conference will be held on Tuesday 9 March 2021 at Merchant Taylors’ Hall.
5 HELP Careers app
It is exciting to announce that a decision has been taken on the future of the HELP Careers app. HELP stands for the affiliation
of the people on the current development group: H - Horners’ Company, E - Educators’ Company, L - Livery Schools Link and
P - project. We have been working with a computer firm SACU who also have a careers app based on their career quiz engine.
HELP was always targeted at year 9 when choices are made, while the SACU App is aimed at years 11-12 when tertiary or uni-
versity careers are the focus. We are therefore going to run HELP and SACU as sequential careers apps and incorporate it into
the SACU offering. Initially, there will be no data harvest from HELP, but it will attract some advertising. HELP is an online pic-
ture based quiz placing students in 1 of 16 zones using cloud presentation technology. It is excellent news that all the work
that has gone on has come to fruition.
6 Livery in Education booklet
It has been decided to postpone publication of the next edition until March 1 2021 so that it is ready for the next Livery Educa-
tion conference. Requests for updates to Company entries will be sent out in September.

Autumn 2020 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors | Page 19