Careers Inspiration For Every Child

It's fair to say that in the last few weeks, we've all had to adapt to new ways of living and working.  There isn't a corner of the globe that hasn't felt the impact of Covid-19 and it's no different for us here at Form the Future and for the children and young people that we and you support. 

The abrupt closure of schools in the UK meant that many young people were not able to sit exams and their hopes for the future were cast into doubt as workplaces went into lockdown and recruitment plans were put on hold as businesses entered survival mode.  Looking ahead, dire economic predictions will have huge implications for whole industries and this will impact the career aspirations of college and school leavers.  

Under these circumstances, it's now more important than ever that young people get good quality, professional careers education, information, advice and guidance and we are still here providing that.  We can't physically go into schools anymore or take children into workplaces but we've moved to offering online resources to support young people at this very difficult time.

We are also working hard to develop our delivery model to offer more virtual content and experiences.  In fact, one silver lining to this crisis is that we will be able to reach even more young people as doing things virtually increasingly becomes the norm and distance becomes less of a barrier. 

Last week, we gathered nearly 40 leading buisness people together in an online meeting to inspire them about our STEM initiative, Cambridge LaunchPad, and we are hopeful that many more will want to get involved as the importance of developing the next generation of changemakers and problem-solvers becomes even more apparent. 

Working with our partners and volunteers, we are looking ahead positively to the future whilst continuing to deliver our services, albeit differently with a blend of the digital and the physical.  We will come out of this stronger and we'll be ready to meet the challenges of a changed world and will continue to provide careers inspiration for every child. 

Thank you for your support. 

In the last three months of 2019 we continued to inspire children across Cambridgeshire and ventured further into East Anglia, working with schools in Norwich and Ipswich.  In this report, we report on just a few of the highlights.  

In October we organised two major careers fairs:

• In Cambridge we came together at Impington Village College with 550 students and more than 30 employers for Opportunities Ahead, showcasing many different careers that young people could aspire to, ranging from electronic engineering to marketing

• In Norwich we held our first Greater Norwich Opportunities Fair for nearly 1,000 students and 68 exhibitors, with more activities planned in the city for 2020

Cambridge LaunchPad, managed by Form the Future, continued to deliver STEM-focused Project Days with leading science and technology companies.  The day at Horizon Discovery in November was a particular highlight. Year 10 students from three secondary schools were tasked with using DNA to solve a murder and learned about some of the career and education pathways into the life sciences.

Julian Fox, Teacher of Science from Bottisham Village College, said: “An excellent opportunity for students to learn some of the processes that scientists have to go through to analyse DNA. A really enjoyable, well run day with excellent volunteers.”

We ended 2019 with our Annual Conference.  More than 100 delegates representing all our partners came together to discuss the theme 'Inequality is bad for business and companies have a role to play in creating a fairer society', with particular emphasis on breaking down barriers to give opportunities to more young people.  We also shared our Impact Report for 2018-19.  We reached18,837 students that year, ran 291 events and worked with 649 volunteers.  

We are looking forward to all the exciting things we will be doing in 2020 to deliver careers inspiration for every child.