Keele University has been awarded the Barclays Life Skills Award - an award which recognises excellence in educational institutions who promote employability skills to their students.

Keele is the first university to be awarded this new national benchmark, recognising the work of the Employability, Enterprise and Employer Engagement Team within the Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence.

Steve Hargreaves, Business Manager for Keele’s Employer Engagement Team, is part of the National Educators Advisory Panel for Barclays, representing the HE sector and the West Midlands Region. This Panel includes senior leaders from Secondary, Further and Higher Education across the UK. The panel informs Barclays about best practice in careers education and feeds into the LifeSkills Council, chaired by Baroness Brady CBE. Along with advocating employability skills within Keele University, Steve supports the LEP Enterprise Advisor Initiative supporting local schools and colleges with careers planning. As part of the educators panel, Steve helps to shape the resources available on Barclays Life Skills online and suggests improvements and new initiatives.

Steve commented:

“It is really pleasing to see that Barclays developed my ideas into two new national initiatives - The Life Skills Awards and Careers Champions.

"I am so proud that Keele University have now received the Life Skills Award. It has been a pleasure to be a part of this Advisory Panel to meet with other members and to share good practice from the sector. I also had the pleasure to meet Karren Brady and Senior Barclays Executives. Knowing that the work of the group informs new developments for Barclays Life Skills is really rewarding, millions of people have now used this online suite of materials.”

Terry Dray, Associate Director for Employability and Employer Engagement within KIITE commented:

“This Life Skills Award, through Steve’s hard work, reflects Keele’s focus on employability skills, enterprise and successful transitions. Steve’s commitment to the LEP’s Enterprise Advisory Initiative and to supporting schools and colleges with careers provision is commendable, and another example of how seriously Keele takes its civic role in supporting young people’s futures.”