Founders4Schools has created a new event type, the third in our suite of employability services; Workplace Visits. Founders4Schools has enlisted the support of its 10,000-strong network of business leaders to offer teenagers unprecedented access during June and July to the world of work at some of the country’s most innovative and fast-growing companies.
If teachers act now, millions of teenagers will have the opportunity before the start of the summer holidays to get insights into how the subjects they’ve learnt can help them in their future careers. Workplace Visits will be the best school trip any ambitious child might ever imagine!
Teachers across the country are being urged to visit Founders4Schools at www.founders4schools.org.uk to secure a Workplace Visit and select local tech developers, game designers and entrepreneurs for their students to visit. F4S then arranges the rest – at no cost to the schools.
Sherry Coutu, Chairman of Founders4Schools, which is celebrating its first birthday today, welcomed the news pointing out that, for the first time, the three main blocks to workplace visits - time, cost and access - have now been removed.
Ms Coutu said: “It’s long been recognised that school trips to companies has a huge impact on the education and career decisions that students take. We are delighted that teachers are now just a couple of clicks away from bringing groups of students into the businesses that are creating the majority of the jobs in our economy. “
“Teachers and schools have a golden opportunity to use the next few weeks before the end of the academic year to visit our website, register with us and sign up for a workplace visit.”
The move has received widespread support among teaching and careers organisations:
"I regularly meet teachers who understand the value of workplace visits, so their students can see first-hand what it’s like using their favourite subjects in real-world companies that exist all around us. The new F4S service is a vital resource to transform the time taken to set these up, and that has the potential to transform the paths children take.”
Lord Jim Knight, Chief Education Adviser at Times Educational Supplement
“We are delighted to be working with Founders4Schools already as part of our Careers & Enterprise Fund and are thrilled about the announcement of the workplace visits programme. This scheme will allow teachers to improve the employability of their students by booking workplace visits now to be ready when their students are out of their exams”
Claudia Harris, CEO of Careers and Enterprise Company
“The Education Foundation is pleased to have collaborated with F4S in the Foundation of Workplace visits - we believe that this novel use of data from the Government and Department for Education will help inspire students to acquire the right skills which will boost our economy. We encourage teachers book one or two workplace visits now so that the students can make their visits the first couple of weeks in July”
Ian Fordham, Co-founder of The Education Foundation and CEO of Edtech UK
Additionally, a number of high-profile business groups and leaders have also given their enthusiastic backing to the initiative:
“Tech Week celebrates the activities that employers undertake to engage with education and their local communities,” “It highlights these activities to schools, helping them bring their pupils closer to the world of work, and it encourages other employers to take part. Tech employers are keen to inspire young people about the exciting range of digital careers, and they are delighted that the new Founders4Schools feature will enable teachers to connect with the leaders of growing companies near them. The help in arranging pupil visits to see at first hand the variety of opportunities in the tech world is a fantastic feature”.
Julie Feest, Head of Strategic Partnerships on behalf of the Tech Partnership
“I think that bridging the gap between schools and the workplace is absolutely critical. We need to encourage and help our young people to move into the right careers for their future and for the future of the UK, particularly in developing areas where there are skill gaps such as the digital economy. And that’s why I am so supportive of this programme”
Marc Allera, CEO of EE
“Workplace visits are a critical tool in addressing the digital skills gap. Our members have a vital role to play and I encourage them all to open their doors to inspire the next generation and help them develop the skills for the jobs of the future. “
Jacqueline de Rojas, Chairman of Tech UK and VP & General Manager, Northern Europe for CITRIX
"NewCo UK (formerly known as OpenCo) has been delighted to collaborate with Founders4schools on this critical issue. We are really pleased that the format they are recommending to teachers and business leaders in their briefings is very much in line with that which NewCo has been successfully using throughout the world for three years which is driven by openness, inspiration, experiences and intimacy that create authentic, and impactful exchanges. We are thrilled to see that they have built on our learnings and content produced from the previous work we did with Your Life on ‘OpenCo Junior”
Ella Goldner, OpenCo founder
About The Tech Partnership