Working together to help young people achieve their potential

1. Working together to help young people achieve their potential www.inspiringthefuture.org

3. What is Inspiring the Future? • Inspiring the Future is a FREE service whereby employees from all sectors and professions from Apprentices to CEOs pledge one hour a year to volunteer to go into state schools and colleges to talk about their jobs, careers, and the education routes they took • It is a FREE service endorsed by Government (with cross-party support), the UK’s main teacher and employer representative organisations and many leading employers • It makes a difference to young people. Good quality research shows that who you meet as a teenager shapes the success with which young people go into adult life • Teachers overwhelmingly want young people to hear more from people in the workplace

4. We have signed up over 13,500 volunteers from 3,500 different organisations and our growth is steadily rising • Over 4,600 teachers from more than 2,700 schools and colleges have already signed up, and we will have recently soft launched our Primary Futures campaign to primary schools • Over 25,000 messages have been sent from volunteers to teachers with over 18,000 since Sept 13 Volunteer Cumulative Line Graph School Teacher Cumulative Line Graph

5. Benefits for Young People • The case for employer engagement in education has never been more compelling • This generation of young people faces an increasingly global economy, a vast and often bewildering range of career choices and increases in higher education costs mean high financial penalties for bad choices • Pupils in state schools want to hear more from employers about jobs and careers but 42% don’t get that chance. It can make a real difference to their perceptions of what jobs are available and inspire them to consider options that they had previously never thought about • The greatest impact can be experienced by those young people whose families have weakest access to relevant sources of career insights (such as the two million children who live in workless households) • Research • It’s who you meet: why employer contacts at school make a difference to the employment prospects of young adults - shows a significant link between young people’s experience of the world of work whilst at school and the chances of them becoming NEET (not in education, • employment or training) as young adults • 26.1% of young people who could recall no contact with employers whilst at school went on to become NEET • This reduced significantly to 4.3% for those who had taken part in four or more activities involving employers • National Careers Council –‘An Aspirational Nation: Creating a culture change in careers provision’ – calls for more careers insights for young people, and highlights how employers could support schools and colleges and give young people insights into the world of work • ‘Employers should encourage their employees to volunteer to go into schools and colleges to give students insights into different careers, enthuse them about the world of work and provide access to active experience of work, in particular to help address mismatches in young people’s career aspirations’.

6. Benefits for Employers • Free secure service that makes it easy to engage with state schools and colleges by matching employee volunteers • Communicating with young people offers excellent personal development opportunities for employees • An effective means of supporting corporate social responsibility and long-term recruitment objectives • A gateway to working with schools and colleges, across a wide range of activities that support learning and progression • Free reports for employers through dedicated registration links (simply sign up via the employer registration link) • "I just thought I would drop you a note about the careers fair today. It was a great event where • young people were given the opportunity to explore ALL the different options open to them • when they leave school. The young people I met were really engaged and I really enjoyed • assisting them on widening their horizons". Volunteer PwC

7. Guidance for volunteers and employers’ responsibilities • Online general guidance will be provided by Inspiring the Future, to both volunteers and registered schools and colleges. • DBS checks are not required for career insight talks as a teacher will always be present • DBS checks or further guidance for certain activities may be required at the discretion of the school/college

8. Over 13,500 diverse volunteers waiting for teachers to invite them to talk to their pupils about their jobs, and the routes they took to get there, or even CV and interview insights at the click of a button Benefits for Schools and Colleges How does it work • When teaching staff log on to the system, they get a list of all those people registered in their area and it’s a simple process to send a message through the system to get in touch "She has volunteered to help us once a month which is great news. She’s so far carried out one session and is due to do another this Friday, 14th February. The applicants really enjoyed the session and it was great to have help from such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteer. In fact, 2 out of the 6 applicants who attended the session on 17th January, have since secured an Apprenticeship position which is brilliant". Northampton College

9. Inspiring the Future: Primary Futures • Essentially this is a primary school project working under the banner of 'Inspiring the Future' to develop effective, innovative approaches which will allow schools to easily engage volunteers to work in schools with primary aged children and is run in partnership with the NAHT • When teaching staff log on to the system, they get a list of all those people registered in their area and it’s a simple process to send a message through the system to get in touch • When volunteers sign up, they are asked if they would mind being approached by local primary schools to talk about their current job and why reading and numeracy in their primary school days were so important in achieving their current status. "We need to give our children and young people a vision of the opportunities available to them, so that they understand the value of learning and in doing so raise aspirations. It is never too soon to start this. We also need better connections between schools and the communities and businesses they work with. Working with charity the Education and Employers Taskforce helps achieve both goals at once. We value working with other organisations on projects that give children the best start in life". Russell Hobby, NAHT General Secretary

10. Types of Events – Schools/Colleges use ITF for Careers Fair Careers Networking Talk

12. Signing up is quick and easy

13. Signing up is quick and easy Add different specialisms Tell schools a little bit about your job and qualifications Add different locations where you can volunteer in Select different activities you could help with

14. Inspiring the Future: Inspiring Women Campaign • The Inspiring the Future: Inspiring Women campaigns aims to get 15,000 inspirational women by the end of 2014 into schools, talking to girls to broaden their horizons and raise aspirations

15. Follow the Inspiring Women blog: www.itfinspiringwomen.wordpress.com

16. Employers and Professional bodies signed up

17. Key Contacts • For any queries please contact: