Liz Rhodes MBE

Director of the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE)

Since the beginning of the 1980s, I have been involved in various youth enterprise activities. Following a merger to set up The Prince’s Youth Business Trust, I became Operations Director, and helped to set up a network of committees whose task was to consider applications for grants and loans from young people who wanted to start a business. In the early 1990s, I spent 18 months in Hungary, passing on know-how to those setting up enterprises support activities, particularly in the small business area. On return to the UK, I became the Director of the STEP programme, which places second year undergraduates in SMEs for 8 weeks during the summer where they undertake projects that benefit the business. Over the 7 years, I built up this programme from 405 placements to over 1,500 covering all parts of the country. I have been Director of the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) since February 2001.

NCWE’s role is to promote, encourage and support the development of all forms of work experience and work-related learning. Its priorities are to:

• Disseminate information and best practice via its website www.work-experience.org
• Encourage the development of quality standards for all forms of work experience activity.
• Raise awareness of the importance of the student employability debate amongst employers large and small, so that many more work experience opportunities are created.

I am also a Trustee of the Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre in SW London, which offers workshop units, help and advice to young people starting a business. Due to may time in Hungary, WYEC is now helping to establish a network of similar centres in Hungary and other parts of Central Europe.

All of the above has happened by chance. In each case it was a matter of being offered a job which sounded interesting and one thing has lead to another. I have been fortunate in that a lot of what I’ve done has been setting up initiatives and therefore I have not followed a particular career path. Things have just happened! There is no particular career path in work experience although this may change as the topic becomes more and more important. Any jobs in this area are likely to be within universities.

I was awarded an MBE for services to education and training in business in the year 2000.

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