Working together to help young people achieve their potential
www.inspiringthefuture.org
Benefits for Young People
The case for employer engagement in education has never been more compelling
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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
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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
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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
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26.1% of young people who could recall no contact with employers whilst at school went on to become NEET
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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’.
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What is Inspiring the Future?
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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
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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
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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
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Teachers overwhelmingly want young people to hear more from people in the workplace
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We have signed up nearly 15,000 volunteers from 3,500 different organisations and our growth is steadily
rising
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Over 5,500 teachers from more than 3,000 schools and colleges have already signed up, and we will have
recently soft launched our Primary Futures campaign to primary schools
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Over 34,000 messages have been sent from volunteers to teachers with over 28,000 since Sept 13
School Teacher Cumulative Line Graph
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Volunteer Cumulative Line Graph
Benefits for Employers
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Free secure service that makes it easy to engage with state schools and colleges by matching employee
volunteers
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Communicating with young people offers excellent personal development opportunities for employees
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An effective means of supporting corporate social responsibility and long-term recruitment objectives
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A gateway to working with schools and colleges, across a wide range of activities that support learning and
progression
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Free reports for employers through dedicated registration links
"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
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If you already have an employee volunteering scheme
Many larger employers already have well developed employee volunteering programmes and Inspiring the Future is designed to fit in easily
with existing schemes. Equally if you are an employer which wants to start a volunteering scheme this is an easy and free way of doing so.
Include Inspiring the Future in your volunteering scheme
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If you employ more than 250 people we can give you a dedicated link to send to your staff
From this we can provide you with a simple report on numbers signed up etc.
Organisations can choose to ask their staff to volunteer near their work address or particular target areas, or nearer home to
volunteer in their communities.
Assistants can sign up on behalf of senior staff using their email address to field requests from schools
Guidance for volunteers and employers’ responsibilities
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Online general guidance will be provided by Inspiring the Future, to both volunteers and registered schools and colleges. It is the
responsibility of teaching staff to contact volunteers through the site and invite them to take part in activities.
Training, CRB checks or further guidance for certain activities may be required at the discretion of the school/college or broker, and
this will be communicated to volunteers. DBS checks are not required for career insight talks as a teacher will always be present
We can offer training for staff and advice on how to run an employee volunteering scheme focused on education. Please get in
touch if you would like to discuss this further.
Benefits for Schools and Colleges
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Nearly 15,000 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
How does it work
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When teaching staff log on to the system, they get a list of all those people registered in their area who can speak
to young people about different specialisms and activities, and it’s a simple process to send a message through
the system to get in touch
Specialisms
Apprenticeships
Design and Manufacturing
Activities
Career Insights
Help with CVs
Enterprise/Entrepreneurs
Mock Interviews
Maths – Using it at work
Numeracy relating to careers
(Primary)
Reading relating to careers
(Primary)
Being contacted about becoming a
school governor
Science and Technology
Languages – French,
German, Italian, Spanish,
Russian, Mandarin,
Japanese, Urdu, Arabic
"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
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Inspiring the Future: Primary Futures
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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
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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
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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
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Types of Events – Schools/Colleges use ITF for
Careers Networking
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Careers Fair
Talk
Signing up is quick and easy
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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
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Example of volunteer profile
that a teacher will view
Inspiring the Future: Inspiring Women Campaign
Inspiring the Future: Inspiring Women Campaign
Inspiring the Future is running a campaign called Inspiring Women to get more women into schools and colleges, talking to
girls to broaden their horizons and raise aspirations. The campaign aims to sign-up 15,000 inspirational women by the end of
2014, and already 7,000 have signed up since October 2013.
Sign up to www.inspiringthefuture.org and volunteer in your area – where you live or where you work and help us to recruit
more women from all sectors at all levels – from Apprentices to CEOs, by asking your colleagues, employees and networks to
sign up
Follow the Inspiring Women blog www.itfinspiringwomen.wordpress.com for news, stories and features about the campaign
Inspiring the Future: Designed & Made Week (30th June – 4th July)
Designed & Made week focuses on careers in design and manufacturing and we hope that this
will encourage far more young people to embrace careers in this sector.
Throughout the week people who design and make: from airplanes and ceramics, to mobile apps
and websites or whatever requires good design and craftsmanship will be visiting schools and
colleges across the country talking to young people.
The campaign links to Miriam González Durántez’s Inspiring the Future: Inspiring Women
campaign We want to put the spotlight on women working in design and manufacturing and a
number of highly successful women will be visiting schools across the country that week.
Inspiring the Future: Inspiring Languages
Already there are hundreds of volunteers who use languages in their jobs who've
offered to go into schools to talk to pupils from lawyers to engineers and
psychologists, from a range of organisations.
Languages include French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Mandarin, Japanese,
Urdu, and many more.
Inspiring Languages Week is promoted jointly by charity the Education and Employers
Taskforce, the British Council, the British Academy, Speak to the Future, Routes into
Languages and many other organisations
Examples of job titles on Inspiring the Future
Adventure
Journalist
Aerospace
Engineer
Airline Captain
Architect
Assistant Private
Secretary to the
Prime Minister
Assistant Private
Secretary to Leader
of the House of Lords
Barrister
Bridge
Designer
Carpenter
Chief
Executive
Consultant
Neurosurgeon
Consulting
Psychiatrist in
Addictions
Demolition
Consultant
Dentist
Detective Sergeant
Diplomatic
Service
Officer
Director of
Political &
Social
Research
Director of
Strategy &
Public
Relations
Economist
Editor
Electrical
Engineer
Entrepreneur
Executive Chef
Executive Creative
Director
Film
Publicity
Manager
Freelance
Wildlife &
Documentary
Cameraman
GP
Head of
Digital
Communicati
ons
Hydrogeologist
Illustrator
Investment
Banker
Manufacturing
Manager
Materials Engineer
Member of
Parliament
Ocean
Rower
Osteopath
Photographer
Political
Correspondent
Principle
Design
Engineer
Publisher
Research Scientist
Senior Broadcast
Journalist
Solicitor
Sound
Recordist
Speech
and
Language
Therapist
Technical
Evangelist
Technologist
Travel Writer
Vice President
Administration
Assistant
Advance Apprentice
Apprentice
Engineer
Apprentice IT
Consultant
Cabin Crew
Court Clerk
Customer
Advisor
Firefighter
Intern
Junior Software
Developer
Nursing Student
PA
Prison
Officer
Secretary
Staff Nurse
Store Trainer
Student
Paramedic
Technician
Apprentice
Ticket Clerk
Trainee Manager
Catering
Manager
Contractor
Systems
Engineer
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Example of some of the Employers and Professional bodies signed up
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Key Contacts
For any queries please contact:
Department
Name
Job Title
Email Address
Telephone
Number
Inspiring the Future
Director
Phil Pyatt
Director – Inspiring
the Future
phil.pyatt@educationandemployers.org
0203 206 0454
Employer Engagement
Oliver Hallam
Business
Development
Manager
oliver.hallam@educationandemployers.org
0203 206 0507
Inspiring Women
Campaign
Gabriella Oakley
Inspiring Women
Engagement
Manager
gabriella.oakley@educationandemployers.org
07703 734840
Schools Team
Charlotte
Lightman
Schools Liaison
Manager
charlotte.lightman@educationandemployers.org
0203 206 0510
PR & Communications
Carol Glover
PR &
Communications
Manager
carol.glover@educationandemployers.org
07939 061 850
enquiries@inspiringthefuture.org
0203 206 0510
General Enquiries
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