Dorset Chamber has welcomed Poole High School as a new Young Chamber Member, thanks to sponsorship by business-to-business marketing agency, Intergage Ltd.
Paul Tansey, Intergage’s Managing Director and current President of Dorset Chamber is also Poole High School’s Careers and Enterprise Adviser, a voluntary role working with the careers team to ensure the school meets the Government’s benchmarks for careers provision.
Paul said: “Sponsoring Poole High School’s membership of Young Chamber makes perfect sense. We already have close links with the school: in addition to my son leaving Poole High with excellent qualifications and the school’s close proximity to our offices, we have regularly hosted students from Poole High for work experience.
“As Dorset Chamber President I pledged to build on the Young Chamber Programme for all schools and I couldn’t think of a better way than by supporting a local school in accessing the high-quality, inspiring and motivational careers advice and curriculum related activity available through Young Chamber. I hope to set a good example for future school sponsors and Young Chamber supporters.”
Intergage sponsored Poole High School in June 2018 and the value of the Chamber network was quickly underlined when Young Chamber immediately assisted with the school’s annual Future Employer Encounter Day, bringing extra business presence to the annual careers event at just three weeks’ notice. The event gave every pupil at the school, with the exception of Year 11 and 13 who were invited to attend around exam timetables, the opportunity to interact with businesses from a broad variety of sectors.
Debbie Porter, whose roles include Teacher of ICT&CS, CEIAG Coordinator and Centre Lead for Young Enterprise at Poole High School, said: “We have already been impressed with the hands-on approach of Young Chamber and the fantastic response from Dorset Chamber members, even at short notice. The value of being able to enlist the help of a dedicated Young Chamber Coordintaor to provide support and assistance in the organisation of events should not be underestimated, especially when, like myself, many careers leads are also teaching throughout the day.
“We are very grateful to Paul and the team at Intergage for their support. With the help of Young Chamber, our Employer Encounter Day this year proved very successful to the extent a number of students were even able to secure a work experience placement with Chamber members for the upcoming year.”
Young Chamber is currently working alongside Poole High School to help deliver its careers strategy and will be approaching member and non-member businesses on their behalf to enlist their help in inspiring the next generation.
Ian Girling, Chief Executive of Dorset Chamber said: “Here at the Dorset Chamber we do our best to develop long-lasting, meaningful relationships with our members and focus on the importance of taking the time to prepare young people for their future careers through the Young Chamber Programme. We are aware of employers’ desire to see the correct working attitude displayed and are keen to give the necessary skills to applicable students. We are grateful for the continued support for the Young Chamber delivered by local, driven companies such as Intergage.”
In his dual capacity as Dorset Chamber President and Careers and Enterprise Adviser to Poole High School, Paul Tansey played a key role in bringing about Dorset’s first Careers and Apprenticeship Show delivered by the Careers and Enterprise Company and supported by Dorset Chamber, Southern Universities Network, National Collaborative Outreach Programme, Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership, Young Chamber, and Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth councils.
The all-day event on 26th September at Bournemouth International Centre was a huge success. 75 exhibitors offering apprenticeships and other opportunities to young people were on hand to give c.4000 students (and their parents) the opportunity to make informed decisions about the career choices available to them when they leave school.
Young Chamber’s work with Dorset’s schools and colleges, supported through sponsorship from Bournemouth University, is even more crucial from the start of this academic year, as careers provision and curriculum-related engagement with businesses will be measured by Government via its Careers and Enterprise Company benchmarking system.
If your business can offer help with careers inspiration and curriculum-related activity, or you would like to know more about becoming a school sponsor, please email Joan Senior, Young Chamber Coordinator joan.senior@dcci.co.uk