ThinkForward shortlisted for Lord Mayor’s Dragon Award

We’re delighted to announce that ThinkForward has been shortlisted for this year’s Lord Mayor Dragon Awards. Out of thousands of applications, we’ve been selected for the Community Partners Award for our work with ICG and Tower Hamlets PRU. This announcement was also featured on London Live TV with our very own Jess Gregson speaking on behalf of ThinkForward about the fantastic impact business mentors and volunteers can have on the lives of young people transitioning from school to work.

Our Managing Director, Kevin Munday, the Head of HR at ICG, Jo Zendel and a ThinkForward young person will be attending their black tie event in September.

ThinkForward and Tomorrow’s People

As ThinkForward approaches our fifth anniversary we have made some changes to our delivery. ThinkForward’s progression coaching programme was designed and created by the Private Equity Foundation in 2010 and to start effective delivery of the programme on the ground in 2011 they chose Tomorrow’s People as their delivery partner. Tomorrow’s People’s experience as a national employment charity delivering NEETs focused employment programmes helped ThinkForward pilot our programme in an initial three schools and to expand to a further seven as part of a social impact bond with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Since then over 1400 young people have benefitted from the support of Progression Coaches in fourteen schools in Islington, Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

During ThinkForward’s first five years the programme became an independent charity, we have also strengthened our programme design, performance and evaluation and created central functions including fundraising, communications, HR and finance. At the end of our contract with Tomorrow’s People, we took the decision to in-source delivery staff to strengthen the links between programme development and delivery and to aid national expansion.

Employees who previously worked on ThinkForward for Tomorrow’s People will be transferred to the ThinkForward charity on July 1st 2016. Delivery on the ground will remain unchanged and participants will continue to receive the same high quality coaching and support that they have always received.

ThinkForward will always be hugely grateful for the important role Tomorrow’s People has played and looks forward to continuing to work together, through representation on ThinkForward’s Advisory Board and in collaborating on future initiatives and projects.

New law to end ‘outdated snobbery’ towards apprenticeships

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said schools must give equal airtime to the non-academic routes pupils can take post-16, under government plans to end the ‘second class’ perception of technical and professional education.

A new law would see apprenticeship providers visit schools as part of careers advice from early secondary school, to talk to pupils about the opportunities open to them. It will also mean schools will be required by law to collaborate with training providers to ensure that young people are aware of all the routes to higher skills and the workplace, including higher and degree apprenticeships. The move follows concerns from ministers about careers advice, with some schools currently unwilling to recommend apprenticeships or other technical and professional routes to any but the lowest-achieving pupils – effectively creating a two-tiered system of careers advice.

At ThinkForward we work with the most disengaged young people across east London to ensure they transition from school to further education or employment. However, we’ve found that although such new laws are much needed, they must be met by demand. Young people need to first be willing to take these opportunities and make the most of careers advice. Which is why our early intervention one-on-one Coaching model engages disadvantaged young people over five years from the age of 13. We ensure young people are offered business mentoring, work placements, work insight days and skills workshops, including CV writing and interview practice to make the most of opportunities offered post-16.

To put this in perspective, 44% of people who began apprenticeships last year were aged 25 or over where as figures now show a fall in the number of 16 to 18-year-olds signing up – a 1.4% drop to 129,90. Which is why in 2015 we came up with eight Ready for Work capabilities, based on recommendations from research into the behaviours, mind-sets and skills employers across all sectors looks for in their workforce, particularly for entry level positions.

ThinkForward Managing Director, Kevin Munday said: “We welcome the changes outlined as we’ve identified through our Progression Coaching model how critical good careers advice and ongoing support can be in supporting a young person into a sustained career path. However we would like to see more guidance for schools to supported disengaged students with such opportunities.”