At ThinkForward we really value our amazing business mentors. They contribute a huge amount of advice and support to the young people we work with and provide important insights about what it’s like to be in a work environment.

We are celebrating National Mentoring Day by hosting a meeting of a group of our business mentoring partners, and the Communities and Enterprise Company who support us to do our mentoring work. We’ll be welcoming Nomura, ICG, Blackstone, EY and Ardian to share best practice and thank them for allowing our young people to benefit from the personal and professional experiences of their talent pools.

One of our major business mentoring partnerships is with the asset management company ICG. They have been partnered with us for four years and have around 18 mentors working with ThinkForward young people who go to LEAP (London East Alternative Provision).

Head of HR, Jo Zendel explained why ICG takes part: ‘This is good for our more junior employees to develop their management skills and their coaching skills, while for some of our colleagues it’s more about them giving a bit back. But above all, it’s about developing skills for the young people.

‘Our employees get a lot out of this because they build a relationship, they see the kids develop and they see the impact. They give their time because they enjoy it too.’

Long-serving mentor Andy Lewis, is ICG’s chief legal officer. He said: ‘It’s the one chance we get to do this kind of thing.  I have been mentoring with ThinkForward for four years. It has been really good to see the different classes come through. Every year I can see positive changes in the young people, and we do see their development. It’s very different from everything else I do and for me that makes it very interesting and worthwhile.

Imogen Lush, who works in HR and payroll, believes that mentoring breaks down barriers and prepares students for the world of work: ‘I think it helps young people see that people who work in offices are approachable, we are just people like them. It’s important that young people feel comfortable coming into this sort of environment. If they have a job interview in the future they will be more relaxed and can see it as a normal experience.

Feedback from the LEAP students demonstrates just how much they get out of the sessions.  Rahat said: “I learned that you have to be brave when talking in public, it was scary but I felt proud after.”

Naheedul, who was partnered with Andy Lewis commented: “My mentor was calm. This was his fourth time doing mentoring and he had so much knowledge I can learn from him.

The final word goes to Ellis who said after his business mentoring session: “Today was wicked as I got to be around successful people who really want to help me in my future, I just want to say thanks to my mentor for all his advice.”

 

Using our expertise in successfully delivering one of the first youth-focused social impact bonds (SIB), ThinkForward is hosting a workshop to trial a new toolkit which aims to help other youth-serving delivery organisations to develop and deliver a SIB.

SIBs are widely recognised as being complex vehicles to design, implement and deliver, which can be a barrier to charities to setting one up. ThinkForward wants to share lessons learned, promote good practice and demystify SIBs, as well as help guide organisations through the steps required to creating a successful SIB.

The workshop, which is being held on 18th October, is open to delivery organisations as well as commissioners, investors, social investment finance intermediaries and other experts. 

The toolkit will be presented by ThinkForward staff who were involved in the creation and implementation of our SIB. It will be followed by an opportunity to work through the materials, test ideas for SIBs and provide feedback. 

The aim is to create a conversation where everyone can share tips and tricks, ask questions and learn from each other. We will feed ideas and suggestions from the workshop into the final report, which will be ready by the end of 2017. 

The toolkit has been created with the support of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML), based on a shared recognition of the need for more support and information for delivery organisations in the marketplace. Through this work, BofAML aims to build its support to organisations which are looking at social investment models, in order to drive social and economic progress. The event is being held at BofAML’s offices in King Edward Street, London.

If you would like to attend you can book a ticket here.

ThinkForward is now recruiting for a pivotal role in the organisation. We are looking for an inspirational leader who will drive forward the design and delivery of our programmes for young people. 

There’s lots to be proud of about ThinkForward – our innovative programme design, our promising impact on young people’s employability, and the scale we have achieved in a relatively short time. But there  also much more we need to do if we are going to deliver a programme that can really prevent the next generation of youth unemployment nationwide.

We need a Head of Delivery who can establish a learning culture amongst our delivery staff, using the insights from the frontline to refine the programme and make it even more impactful. A people-person who can operationalise our vision and get others to follow. A leader who can identify new business opportunities and execute them effectively.

This a role that’s likely to appeal to someone with experience in a similar strategic role. Our expectations are high, but we will provide you with a supportive team, fantastic learning and development opportunities, and exposure to leading edge thinking on impact management.

The Head of Delivery will be a key part of our four-person executive leadership team which will be developing and implementing a new business plan for 2018-2023. 

Our priorities include refining our programme delivery, proving our impact and extending our reach to more young people. We will also be consolidating two new pilot programmes – MoveForward and CareForward – which target young people with learning disabilities and young people leaving care. 

The post holder will have line management responsibility for five members of staff and be ultimately accountable for 28 full-time staff and around 300 volunteers across our main locations in London, Kent and Nottingham.

The role can be based in any of our sites with travel to the other two locations regularly, typically up to once a week. 

The deadline for applications is 29^th August. First interviews and assessment centre will be held during the weeks beginning 4^th and 11^th September, with final interviews taking place the week beginning 18^th September.

You can download more information about the role here.