Dorset Chamber members and other businesses and organisations have collectively supported c.16000 students across Dorset over the 2018/2019 academic year through Dorset Chamber’s Young Chamber programme.
Supporting the Gatsby Benchmark framework for careers activity – a statutory requirement for schools – Young Chamber Dorset, which enters its 4th year this month, has helped schools deliver their careers activities, worked in partnership with other careers delivery organisations, and arranged sector specific careers events with programme sponsor Bournemouth University.
Working collaboratively with Careers and Enterprise Company, BCP Council, Dorset Council, Young Enterprise, Young Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (Dorset & Solent) and Southern Universities Network, Young Chamber has supported events and engaged the 700+ Dorset Chamber members, other businesses and schools to take part in and attend a variety of events such as: the first Careers & Apprenticeship Show (Sept 2018); the (then) East Dorset and Christchurch Council’s first Careers in Engineering Event (Nov 2018); Dorset Council’s first Big Bang @Dorset STEM event (Mar 2019); Young Enterprise Dorset’s DASH Skills Match events (March and April 2019); and Careers & Enterprise Company’s Middle Schools project (Jun / Jul 2019) with speed networking sessions and assembly talks.
Working with careers leads in Young Chamber member schools, Young Chamber has promoted and engaged organisations to take part in a wide variety of activities and events including school-wide or sixth form specific careers fairs, mock interviews, talks about the different routes students can take to success and curriculum related careers talks.
Young Chamber has helped also supported more bespoke activities, helping to find ‘dragons’ to judge student’s group work at schools, arranging and given training to both staff and students on Linkedin, and helped to find work experience placements for students related to specific areas of study, as well as providing one-to-one work experience to students either one afternoon a week for a term or for a whole week.
In May, Young Chamber also launched its ‘Introduction to Careers in…’ sector specific events supported by Bournemouth University, where Y9 to Y13 students from all schools and their parents were invited to attend events for Media and for Law, to look at post 16 and 18 training / study options including college, apprenticeships and university, and to hear from people working in those sectors who have taken different routes to success.
Joan Senior, Young Chamber Coordinator at Dorset Chamber, said: “I am very fortunate that my role enables me to talk to such a great array of people from Dorset Chamber and beyond who are so supportive of the careers agenda. The number of students we were able to reach last academic year working in conjunction with other organisations as well as through our own events reflects a huge collective effort from the business community, who are always so generous with their time and experience. Many want to give back and positively impact young people by providing the careers support they would have liked but perhaps did not receive themselves; others have children of the school age we are working with and are keen for them to receive the best careers support they can too. Thank you to everyone who has supported Young Chamber. We look forward to working with a fantastic array of businesses / people this academic year.”
Ian Girling, Chief Executive at Dorset Chamber said:“Young Chamber is only as effective as the business community when it comes to delivering careers support in schools and we are proud of how active Dorset Chamber membership companies are in this regard. However, none of this is possible without the support of our programme sponsor, Bournemouth University, or the school sponsors last year – Actisense, Atlas Elektronik, Blue Sky Financial Planning, BV Dairy, Coles Miller Solicitors, Hoburne Group, Intergage, Lester Aldridge LLP, REIDsteel, Smith Hobbs Wealth Management and Walker Wealth Management.”
To find out more about Young Chamber, sponsorship of the programme or how your business can be involved in careers activities in schools, please visit: www.dorsetchamber.co.uk/young-chamber or follow: LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/young-chamber-dorset Twitter: @YoungChamberDT Keep abreast of Young Chamber News by scrolling down to ‘Education’ at: www.dorsetchamber.co.uk/news/
Young Chamber is part of the Collaboration for Careers Dorset comprising BCP Council, Dorset Council, Careers and Enterprise Company, Young Chamber, Young Enterprise and Young Apprenticeship Ambassador Network. Search for the hashtag #C4DC on social media to keep up to date with all the careers activities organised by these careers delivery organisations in Dorset.