The Give an Hour campaign highlights that in as little as one hour, organisations can help to transform a young person’s future by bringing to life different career opportunities and providing insight about the skills young people need to be work-ready and successful in the workplace.
Run by the Liverpool City Region Careers Hub, in partnership with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and The Careers & Enterprise Company, the initiative has enabled schools and colleges in the Liverpool City Region to be partnered with employers ensuring sector skills and experience is embedded into the curriculum and that careers education is more informed by industry.
Volunteers can get involved in supporting careers events such as mock interviews, CV workshops, career fairs, sharing your career story to a class or assembly, group sessions about your industry and the opportunities that exist.
With over 200 volunteers from various sectors across the region, Give an Hour has provided more opportunities for volunteers to put themselves forward to support career readiness, reducing skills gaps and inspiring future talent.
Schools and colleges have been linked with some amazing local employers and provided them with valuable experience of the workplace and career encounters. So far, this academic year, 95 links with volunteers have been made to support a vast range of career activities across 67 schools and colleges requesting support, with 225 links made last academic year.
For example, mock Interviews were held at The Mosslands School, Wirral last term with support from Phil Kane, Talent & Apprenticeship Lead from Wirral Council. Phil commented that it was a “well organised event with the students prepared well for the interviews.”
For Simone Wilson, Careers Manager from Wirral Grammar School for Boys, the Give an Hour initiative has helped enhance their own careers programme. “The Give An Hour campaign has really helped to strengthen our careers programme; developing positive relationships with local employers, supporting our students’ aspirations and providing fantastic networking opportunities for both staff and students.”
At Crosby High School, Craig Stobie from Domino Printing Sciences supported two career events. “It was fantastic to support the events with a couple of different year groups at Crosby High School. There were lots of questions and interest from the pupils which made it a really enjoyable and participative session. It was also really well organised by Mr. Bellis which made it easy to deliver the sessions.”
Denise Wright, Executive Education and continuing professional development (CPD) Officer from The University of Liverpool supported professional careers talk at Childwall Sports and Science Academy. Denise said: “This was my first event, and I was inspired by the interest, thoughtful and measured questions from the pupils. 19 students volunteered to attend, 18 male and 1 female. The main interest was in my previous military career, and I hope I inspired those students, and in particular the one female who attended, I hope she felt that in me she had a role model who was relatable.”
Eddie Boyd, Building Decarbonisation Specialist from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority supported with the IET Faraday Challenge Day at St Michael’s Church of England High School, Crosby. Eddie commented: “A wonderfully well organised event with lots of interaction with the teams.”
Everyone at the Careers Hub would like to thank all our volunteers for their ongoing support to our schools and colleges. With your support, we really can inspire our future workforce.
Can you Give an Hour?
If you are interested in getting involved and would like to join the mailing list to see the local career activities that you could support with, sign up here.
Charlotte Lawrence, Enterprise Coordinator, Liverpool City Region Careers Hub
