We are part of a consortium of Education Business Link Organisations covering Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire (MOB EBLO) set up to manage funding from the LSC.  These partners include Buckinghamshire EBP, Oxfordshire EBP, Young Enterprise, Construction Industry Training Board, Industrial Trust and Business Dynamics.

Partners
• Education
• Business
• Education Business Partnership Organisations

Education
We work with all 12 MK secondary schools

Business
We work with 1000 local employers and various employer representative organisations including the Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Directors and Federation of Small Businesses.

EBPOs - Education Business Partnership Organisations
Work-related learning works best when young people, parents or carers, schools, colleges, employers, work-based learning providers and Education Business Partnership Organisations (EBPOs) work together as a partnership to make it happen.  Countec EBP leads this partnership in MK.

MOB EBLO:  We are part of a consortium of Education Business Link Organisations covering Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire (MOB EBLO) set up to manage funding from the Learning & Skills Council.  These partners include Buckinghamshire EBP, Oxfordshire EBP, Young Enterprise, Construction Industry Training Board, Industrial Trust and Business Dynamics.

MK EBPO:  We co-ordinate a group of Education Business Partnership Organisations (EBPO) operating in Milton Keynes, including Young Enterprise and Young Chamber, whose mission is to provide education and business partners with a comprehensive and coherent range of education business link activities based on agreed protocols for employer engagement.

What is an EBPO?
Most schools and colleges use the services of EBPOs. EBPOs operate locally, nationally and/or are concerned with specific work-related learning activities or subjects, for example engineering or mentoring. Together they cover all parts of the country and can support every part of the curriculum. Their structures, membership and funding arrangements vary quite widely – some may be part of a local authority or careers service, others may be private sector companies or social enterprises.  The range of services EBPOs provide can also vary. They may provide work-related learning products and services directly and/or provide brokerage facilities to help schools and colleges access employers and other providers of work-based learning.

Whatever the variations between them, however, the role of an EBPO is basically the same – to develop partnerships between education and business in the geographical or subject area they cover and to make work-related learning easy to arrange. Most of the work-related learning provided by schools and colleges which involves third parties is now organised through EBPOs. In addition, many schools and colleges have long established partnerships with employers and work-based learning providers that they maintain directly. Both of these arrangements lead to good work related
learning opportunities for young people.

At national level organisations such as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA); Ofsted and the National Education Business Partnership Network (NEBPN) work to maintain and develop the policies and infrastructure that helps work-related learning at local level to take place and be effective. The rest of this section outlines the important roles played by young people and their parents or carers, schools and colleges, employers and brokers.