As a Business Adviser your role is to take a more consultative, facilitative approach to your support and you should avoid telling the students what to do.

Your role is to offer encouragement and expertise to students. For many you will be the first person from the world of work they have spoken to. However it can be tough to engage students at the beginning of your Company Programme experience. It is important to work closely with your Centre Lead, especially at the beginning when you are forming relationships with the students you are working with and help with early discussions. From the outset, the students should see you as the primary facilitator of their Programme experience.

The table below sets out the difference in responsibilities between you and the Centre Lead:

Role/Responsibility

Centre Lead

Business Adviser
Recruiting and signing students up and registering the student company onto the Programme. Ensuring students are signed up to YE Digital Connect (Eng & Wales only) ✓  
Ensuring students have access to school resources, e.g. room for meetings with access to digital projection. Promoting the Centre’s participation in the Programme with staff colleagues and Senior Team ✓  
Welcoming the BA and being available as the ongoing point of contact for BA, as required. Ensuring that the BA is made aware of centre-specific safeguarding policies and procedures ✓  
Regularly attending weekly board meetings. Please note that the CL or a member of school staff will be required to be present for any video conferencing meetings.    ✓
Ensuring that the teams operate within necessary legal parameters, the Programme rules and sound practices   ✓
Ensuring that the team understand and follow sensible financial management practices and maintain an appropriate level of financial control   ✓
Facilitating the experiential learning opportunity   ✓
Observing the team in action and helping all team members to make an appropriate contribution   ✓
Helping the team to establish appropriate communication mechanisms, (which can include the CL and BA in a suitable, safe fashion)   ✓
Encouraging the students, fostering their enthusiasm and focus, and helping them recover from setbacks as necessary ✓ ✓
Sharing lessons and experiences to enhance the realism of the Programme experience and reinforce learning   ✓
Securing permissions in line with school policy for students to attend events if necessary ✓  
Helping the teams make the necessary preparations for key events such as online competitions    ✓
> Expectations of Centre Leads

There are a number of expectations that we have of you and the Centre Lead. These include:

  • That you fully support the Rules of Engagement for Virtual Meetings. These can be found on YE Online in the  Company Programme Toolkit and above under Centre Lead Guidance/Providing Remote Support..
  • That you join in meetings and regularly communicate with your team, or communicate in advance if you will not be able to attend. If a recurring commitment means that you are no longer able to support your student company adequately then this should be discussed with the CL and your YE Support contact.
  • CLs try to accommodate the needs of the BA in making meeting arrangements and being flexible in this regard. Most companies meet at the same time each week and this needs to match the availability of the BA
  • The CL should help to set meetings standards during the first few sessions and address any poor behaviours by the students. They should not expect you to do this.
  • Both should feel able to raise issues with the other about their working relationship or contributions and how things might be improved
> Forming a relationship with the CL

As well as forming an effective relationship with your CL, you can both enhance the Programme experience by working closely with the student company’s MD:

  • the CL by sharing some of the administration tasks, for example: liaising with the local YE team regarding events, acting as a figurehead for the Programme within the centre and
  • you by helping them develop the necessary leadership and management skills, for example: running effective meetings and encouraging their peers to make decisions and complete the actions assigned to them

New combinations of CL and BA may take some time to develop a productive working relationship and make this work in front of the students. Being up-front about the challenges and sharing expectations can help significantly to make the relationship work.

You should be aware that CLs also volunteer a great deal of their personal time to support the students, and often take on the CL role in addition to their already busy work schedules. Please recognise and appreciate this as you work in collaboration with the CL.