Be the Change... breaking down barriers and raising aspirations. A collaboration between LoveLocalJobs.com and social enterprise humanutopia, Be the Change is a ground breaking, inspirational programme aimed at year 9 students who may face challenges and difficulties in school or with school life. The programme focuses on happiness, confidence, hope, relationships and employability and encourages students to identify their personal barriers to success, before helping them find ways of overcoming them. Supported by the Be the Change team, business representatives from organisations across the local area are invited to be involved in the programme as business guides and positive role models – they work closely with the students, sharing their experiences and stories of their career journey’s, as well as encouraging the students and listening to their day to day struggles. Meeting on up to 6 separate occasions during the academic year (including large scale conferences, 1:1 sessions and workplace visits), the programme helps students to understand what positive changes they need to make in order to realise these aspirations, and what qualities are required to be successful in business and the workplace. Be the Change helps open student’s eyes to the world of work and wealth of the possibilities and career opportunities in their hometown and beyond. It also provides a great opportunity for businesses to engage with their future workforce, building awareness of their employer brand amongst young people in their local area. Where it all began and a bit about us… Be the Change was created in 2015, in partnership with social enterprise humanutopia, in response to 5 years’ worth of feedback from employers about the gaps they were experiencing in their talent pipelines. Research shows that as well as online support, young people want face-to-face advice and guidance from businesses when they are starting to think about their future career. There is also plenty of research that suggests that our young people need far more support with building confidence, hope for the future, relationships and ultimately becoming more employable, successful and happy human beings. LoveLocalJobs.com runs an award-winning family of regional job boards across Sussex and Surrey and works to proactively link businesses, universities, colleges & schools, public sector, charities and community groups along with a raft of other organisations, to create and promote local employment opportunities whilst providing much needed careers, information, advice and guidance to local businesses and job-seekers alike. Ultimately we strive to be a far more than a local jobs board. humanutopia is an award-winning social business with more than 13 years’ experience in creating and delivering inspirational courses in schools for students and staff. Their courses are based on personal, social and workplace skills development, and improve the hope, confidence, happiness, relationships, and employability of participating students. humanutopia have worked with over 230,000 young people, 200 schools, 35,000 adults and 25,000 student volunteers. The Be the Change Programme positively impacts and shapes the future workforce at the same time as offering businesses a fantastic opportunity to make a tangible, measurable and life changing difference to local young people. Each intervention supports the personal development of the students and the social impact is measured. Be the Change focusses on qualities and life skills that support qualifications and success. In a mixture of larger group work, smaller breakout groups and 1-2-1 sessions, the young people and business volunteers are able share their views, day-to-day issues and concerns, and aspirations for the future. The students are invited to look at the influences of others, peer pressure and the culture of conformity and will reflect on their attitude, behaviour and impact on themselves and others. Be the Change helps young people to understand what positive changes they need to make in order to realise their aspirations and what qualities are required to be successful in business and the workplace. Business volunteers will provide support and advice throughout the Be the Change journey, acting as positive role models and business guides, and helping to inspire the students with their ideas and encouragement. Be the Change Programme Objectives are: to build the happiness, confidence, hope, relationships and employability of participating students to encourage business mentoring in schools to increase the life skills and employability skills of young people to create sustainable networking opportunities for young people to develop stronger and more meaningful partnerships between local schools and businesses to promote sharing of best practice for careers teaching between local schools to create more meaningful work experience opportunities for young people to strengthen the profile of local employers and related career opportunities to inspire young people to consider their route into employment whether that be through FE, HE or via an apprenticeship, traineeship or work experience placement Programme Structure Number of stakeholder groups per area/programme (approximations): 100 Year 9 Students from 6-10 Schools 10-20 Teaching Staff 20 Business Volunteers/Guides 3 Humanutopia Team 3 LoveLocalJobs Event Team 100 Year 5 or 6 Primary School Students (for part of Hero Training only) Activity Overview Each Be the Change programme will encompass up to 6 activities/events over the course of the school year: 1. Be the Change Conference (full day event) Either launching the full programme or as a ‘stand-alone’ event, the conference is an inspirational day held, whenever possible, in an impressive local venue. Event managed by LoveLocalJobs.com and delivered by social enterprise, humanutopia, the Be the Change conference brings together approximately 20 business volunteers, with 100 Year 9 pupils who may face challenges and difficulties in school or with school life. Throughout the day, the students and business guides take part in emotional, interactive and engaging workshops and group activities led by humanutopia’s founders, Carlo Missirian and Graham Moore, both former teachers who understand the challenges facing young people today. Session 1: Barriers to Success -The young people are encouraged to look at the influences of others, peer pressure and the culture of conformity. Working in small groups with business guides, students will reflect on their attitude, behaviour and their impact on themselves and others. Session 2: The Big Quissue - Focusing on qualities and life skills that support qualifications and success. The young people and business volunteers are mixed up into small groups (usually 1 business guide; 5 students). This highly interactive session enables young people and business volunteers to share their views, aspirations and understand the qualities required to be successful in business and the workplace. Session 3: Sell Yourself – The final session of the day helps the young people put together their own personal ‘Elevator Pitch’ – they will learn how to present themselves to their group and business volunteer and will be encouraged to focus on highlighting all of their employable qualities and what makes them unique and valuable. 2. School Visits and 1:1 Sessions (Up to 50 minutes per 1:1 session) The business guides will hopefully have had the chance to create a positive relationship with students at the conference and will now look to support the young people on the continuation of their journey of change. This 1:1 session will give the business guides and students the chance to discuss the impact of the conference and allow the business guides an opportunity to explore in more depth each student’s influences, their challenges and their perceived barriers. The business guides will be encouraged to look at the participant’s potential for growth, discuss solutions for any barriers and to create achievable goals or discuss proposed goals in order to inspire the young people to take action, no matter how big or small. Using a guidance booklet, together they will reflect, write, share and express three action points based on the student’s perceptions of what might be stopping them from being successful. They will discuss the positive changes they can make and the support they will get from the business guides in order that can achieve their aspirations for the future. Students should aim to complete the three key goals by the end of the programme. 3. Hero Training & Primary School Inductions (full day event) Students and business guides are invited to attend a second one day conference at which they will experience the Heroes Training session. Supported by the presence of the business guides, humanutopia and the Be the Change team will work to build on some of the powerful messages and icons that the young people became familiar with at the launch conference. During the training they will spend time looking at the power of communication and working as a team. The activities will encourage them to grow by becoming positive role models and will teach them that by working together as ‘Heroes’ they can have a positive influence and impact in their respective schools and communities. Overall the training helps the young people to develop life skills and create positive cycles. During the afternoon session, as a surprise for the students, local feeder primary students will be invited to attend workshops