Persona Education partners with Hays Education Hub
Press Release
Bristol, UK, 21st March 2024
Hays and Persona Education have agreed a partnership to make content from the popular student personal development platform Persona Life Skills available in the Hays Education Hub platform. Persona will provide career guidance courses for teachers to use with secondary and college students, as well as CPD resources to upskill teachers on social-emotional pedagogies.
Image: Persona Education
Persona Education, the online personal development provider, and Hays, the specialist recruitment agency for the education and teaching industry, have entered a partnership in which career guidance and employability content adapted from the popular social-emotional learning platform, Persona Life Skills, will be made available in the Hays Education Hub. The Hub is a growing library of digital learning resources designed to empower school staff and pupils, consolidated under one free, easy-to-use platform.
Research shows that improving of social-emotional skills – such as goal-setting, active listening, critical thinking and empathy – can have a significant positive impact on young people’s personal development, in social, learning and work contexts.
93% of employers say social-emotional skills play a critical role in their decision about who they want to hire, according to a CNBC report. Supporting this, ZipRecruiter’s Survey of the Class of 2023 reported that employers are now putting a premium on trainability and social-emotional skills.
A review of 17 research studies by The Centre for Education & Youth (CFEY) identified a causal link between developing social-emotional skills and improved wellbeing, and the Global Happiness Council has found employees with higher levels of wellbeing are 20% more productive.
Furthermore, teaching social-emotional skills brings benefits for teachers. Managing stress, avoiding burnout, better decision-making and improved student-teacher relationships can all result. When teachers deliver social-emotional learning they develop the same strategies for improving the targeted skills as their students.
The Hays Education Hub includes a wealth of CPD-accredited training, including content on wellbeing and personal effectiveness, updated safeguarding courses, the latest industry insights, free student career guidance, and talent services.
The Persona Life Skills content to be adapted for the Hays platform will include courses on teacher personalities and adaptability, using personality insights to inform pedagogy, strategies for integrating social-emotional learning into classroom teaching, oracy in the classroom, and more. The student career guidance resources will included courses on self-discovery and personality insights, work experience, interview readiness, job choices, and more.
The initial batch of content will be free to access for teachers using the Hays Education Hub.
“Machine learning, AI and increasing digitisation are some of the greatest challenges ever faced. Alongside the technical skills required in the future workforce, there is a massive requirement for distinctly human skills, doing the jobs that machines are unable to. Unfortunately, the effect of COVID-19 on young people has been to reduce the level of these skills, exactly as they are most needed by employers. This has a direct impact on young people's employability, job stability and career prospects. This partnership between Persona and Hays will give teachers and their students access to ready-made resources to help address the problem,” said Pete Read, CEO and Co-founder of Persona Education.
Persona Life Skills is the popular online social-emotional learning platform with a unique personality insights framework at its heart, where students age 13-19 develop life skills that help to boost their wellbeing and employability. The platform guides students in developing 22 life skills grouped into six skillsets: 1. Being Realistic; 2. Communication Skills; 3. Open-mindedness; 4. Problem Solving; 5. Resilience; 6. Self-control.
Persona Life Skills was developed in response to widespread and deepening concern over teenager wellbeing and employability, with funding from Google and the UK government’s innovation arm UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
To date, over 500 schools in 45 countries have signed up to use the platform with more than 150,000 students.
The platform offers a scaffolded, age-appropriate online learning curriculum for Year 9-13/Grade 8-12 (KS3, KS4, KS5) students, built around Persona’s personality insights framework rooted in behavioural science, and complementing existing school personal development, PSHE/RSE, life skills, citizenship, SMSC, careers and wellbeing programmes.
ENDS
About Persona Education Ltd
Persona Education is a UK based edtech start-up developing life skills solutions for secondary students and educational institutions. Its web and mobile online learning platforms are built around a scientifically proven personality insights framework, that is social, practical and memorable. For further information contact info@persona-life.com or +44 (0)117 313 2897.
