Partner Article

New ‘Inspiring the Future’ careers programme launched

The Deputy Prime Minister has launched a new scheme to send volunteers into schools to give youngsters inspirational talks about their future careers.

Nick Clegg was joined by a number of well known faces, including entrepreneur Karren Brady, actor Joanna Lumley and Glamour magazine editor Jo Elvin to launch the scheme, which hopes to raise aspirations of young people across the UK.

Research published today by the Education and Employers Taskforce, an independent charity, shows that 80 per cent of independent schools regularly bring external speakers into their schools to boost the career aspirations of their students. 85 per cent involve employers in giving careers advice to students, through Careers Fairs or regular careers talks. Many state schools lack the alumni links to give their students the same opportunities.

The ‘Inspiring the Future’ initiative, run by the Education and Employers Taskforce, will play a key role in plugging this gap by connecting inspiring speakers with local schools.

Mr Clegg said: “Inspiring the Future will give state school students the chance to see, hear and make a connection with someone in a career or job they might not have thought about.

“Today we’re calling on doctors, nurses, lawyers, builders, business people, civil servants, farmers, mechanics, engineers and other working people to give up just an hour of their time to talk to students in their local state school about how they got where they are today. The power of making connections that inspire young people is immeasurable and can be life-changing.

The Government is now attempting to recruit an ‘aspiration army’ of 100,000 volunteers, which would allow state schools across the UK access to a pool of speakers from a range of sectors and backgrounds, with the aim of reaching 1 million young people by 2013.

One third of all state schools have already logged on to the Inspiring the Future website to request a talk for a local volunteer, and it snow hoped that the network will continue to expand rapidly.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .