ABSTRACT
Few areas of the curriculum have been unaffected by the initiatives and projects launched under the banner of the ‘school-industry’ and ‘education-industry’ link movement over the past few decades. Economic and industrial dimensions have touched most areas of the school curriculum and with it the work of the majority of teachers and pupils. A recent DFE survey of school-business links shows that:
92 per cent of secondary schools and 56 per cent of primary schools had links or contacts with local business;
91 per cent of the total number of pupils in their last year of compulsory schooling were involved in work experience placements;
51 per cent of secondary schools said that work experience had contributed to assessed GCSE course work;
the most common business links activity for secondary schools, other than work experience, was curriculum development activity with 82 per cent of schools participating;
for primary schools visits to businesses were the most common business links activity with 32 per cent of schools participating;
50 per cent of school-business links activities involved large firms with over 500 employees. (DFE, 1993)
