The school has a permanent dialogue and interaction with the labour market.

• We try to foster and support interaction with the community, including different institutions such as: our school partners; the Businesspeople Forum (20 entrepreneurs from different branches and areas of activity that keeps the school updated on latest news and labour market requirements and spreads our practices outside school).
• There is a Professional Tutor for each Class ( a face-to-face interaction with a professional that enables the adequate training of students to meet the requirements of the labour market). We have Professional Aptitude Project Judges (Projects that can have a real impact in certain companies, could have the capacity to improve the overall labour market in a specific sector by being implemented and/or could be a strong recruitment resource). There is a Career Management Department (incorporating: a) a curricular work placement database for students according to the latest company needs; b) employment candidates database - specific for employers; c) employers' database - provides current job opportunities for graduates and students).
• We run Conferences / Master classes involving lectures by specialists/entrepreneurs every month (we have an hour per class in the timetable for these master classes - the time is also used by the Class Educational Adviser to deal with pedagogical issues).
• We also enter students for Quality Awards (rewards given by different companies to our best students).

Our programme dealing with 'Work Context' and 'Measures of Transition to Working Life' produce the following:

• The bond created between school/teachers with the Labour Market;
• Strong relationship and identification of the companies with the School;
• Projects developed throughout the course in a real context;
• Contacts and dynamism together with the companies in the technical sectors;
• Integrated work placements (in some courses).

Our external partners include: Parents' cooperation; Links with external partners provided by Junior Achievement Portugal; Volunteers; Contacts with partners in business.

Our work with external organisations includes the following:

• Key Stage 4 and 5 students (aged 14-19) worked in 'Hi5' and 'Potty Pots' business groups supported by Ornamental Plants at Ormskirk.  
• We have a significant partnership with Progress Supported Employment Service.  
• BBC coverage of Teaching Awards highlighted Highfurlong and we were awarded Enterprise Teacher of the Year in October 2010.  
• Woodlands and Park Schools – Key Stage 4 (students aged 14-16) collaboration; also, Highfurlong staff and students have provided support to Boundary School in Blackpool for a soap-making workshop.  
• Enterprise afternoon - fundraisers are held on a regular basis.
• 'Step Up' event at the Hilton Hotel to raise awareness and increase opportunities within enterprise and work related learning.  
• My Money Week with PfEG (Personal Finance Education Group).
• 'Evolve Project' with Lancaster University  and an 'E–Commerce Project' with Blackpool Sixth Form College.
• Partnership with Yorkshire Bank.
• Blackpool Football Club competition.
• We have welcomed many visitors into school and have provided case studies and welcomed other professionals to share good practice; Article written and published by SEN Magazine; Ian Forsyth Printer;  Mark Booth Printer.  
• Access to visiting speakers on a regular basis.  
• Social Enterprise and Charity links such as Macmillan Coffee morning, Jeans for Genes, Red Nose Day, Anti-Bullying Week, Children in Need, Remembrance Day, Bright For Sight (Henshaw’s College, Harrogate), Brian House, Donna’s Dream House and the British Heart Foundation. 

We cooperate with Junior Achievement and the Association of Young Entrepreneurs and through these organisations we cooperate with companies, whose people come to our school to give presentations, teach students and explain about specific topics. We are a vocational school and our students have practice training in many hotels, but we do not really see this as entrepreneurship education.

Examples of our cooperation with external organisations:

• The school is particularly pleased to cooperate with banks and bank consultants/employees are regularly invited to classes.
• We have started a partnership with Politechnika in Koszalin in accordance with an agreement with our Junior High School in order to develop knowledge and the students’ interest in technical sciences, the economy and humanities.
• We have also initiated an intent to jointly realize an EU project regarding entrepreneurship. Unfortunately the project we wrote excluded the participation of our school, because the announced competition wasn’t an answer for our school's problems / we did not fulfil the project requirements (big school, big location, high educational results, well-functioning school).
• Thanks to our participation in the project/competition, 'Young Campaign of Entrepreneurship', we have developed an attractive cooperation with the University of Gdansk. Students gain much important knowledge from local institutions to help them when participating in educational projects.

Cursor'( Southern Finland Entrepreneurship) is a very enthusiastic organisation which helps to educate teachers and to arrange classes to entrepreneurship events. They help in any way, such as money for buses, to teacher education events, 'entrepreneurtreffs'.

Their website is: http://www.cursor.fi/ and can also be accessed in English.

General Education Secondary Schools no. 5, no. 6 and no. 7: The school cooperates with the organisation, English Unlimited, within the framework of 'Schools of Success' which is an interregional program for developing students' skills in the extent of key competences, with particular focus on entrepreneurship, foreign languages and ICT. Moreover, the school often cooperates with other secondary schools. This cooperation serves as an exchange of experience. Business world experts, business trainers and university scholars are often invited to the school to teach classes or run workshops.