Employability is our business

Inspira is a social enterprise, with an established record for delivering professional career management and powerful youth development programmes.

We work in schools and in the community, with young people and their families, in formal and non-formal settings.

We inspire people to progress in life and work, develop as individuals and achieve their potential.

We help learning providers to fulfil their career advice duties and to deliver a curriculum that prepares young people for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Our teams are qualified and experienced in career management and personal development, backed by local knowledge, and well-connected to professional networks.

The Inspira approachWe understand that a career is more than simply a job, that true employability is a rich mix of personal attitude and behaviour, vocational skills, self-management and motivation.

This is why Inspira adopts a whole-person approach, helping young people to explore and develop their potential, understand the full range of opportunities, reach informed decisions and make things happen.

It is an approach that encompasses individual, in-depth guidance to equip young people with clear progression goals, large-scale informative and interactive events, intensive targeted support for young people facing barriers, and experiential learning together with strategic support for schools.

Uniquely amongst youth organisations, Inspira provides young people with a combination of professional career management, transformational experiences and practical support for progression in work and learning.

We deliver high quality activities in all these areas, and we are able to draw upon our range of complementary programmes to further extend the opportunities and support available to young people.

The Inspira approach is proven and effective, based on decades of successful partnership work.

We are experts at working with young people on the threshold of adult life, helping them become well-prepared, confident, resilient and employable.

Mark Bowman, Chief Executive

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visits, talks from inspirational role models and other high-impact experiences to foster self-belief, raise aspirations and challenge negative stereotypes.

Guided reflection. Reflecting on their aims, attitudes and achievements is essential for young people’s understanding of their own potential. As an integral part of our group programmes or through individual career coaching, we use guided reflection to help build young people’s awareness of how they might apply their skills.

Exploring optionsIt stands to reason - we can’t make informed choices without knowing and understanding the options open to us. We wouldn’t want to commit ourselves, or our children, to decisions that may involve significant life implications without accurate, impartial information or the chance to experience and explore what’s on offer.

Young people have important choices to make at key transition points, yet often don’t understand the differences between types of progression routes or providers, or even the language used to describe their options. Parents and carers may also struggle to keep up to date with changing opportunities.

Whether it’s opening eyes and expanding horizons, or grounding career ideas with firm, realistic expectations, Inspira works with young people to inform, challenge and raise awareness of what’s possible.

Events. We organise large-scale, tailored activities for schools and communities that bring together young people and their families with employers and learning providers. Examples include:

• World of Work (WoW!) - which showcases the breadth of current and future opportunities in the local labour market

• SkillsFest - a hands-on festival of skills for employability featuring local businesses and industry role models

• Jobs in Our Community - an event which helps inform, excite and motivate young minds about their future as they make the transition into secondary school

Personalised placements. For young people seeking extended work experience or who have specific needs, we can source, organise and support bespoke work tasters and ‘incubator placements’ with businesses and community organisations.

Career information and education sessions. We deliver a wide range of sessions to help equip young people and their families to make choices. Topics include:

• Fast Forward - future trends in the world of work

• Apprenticeships and alternatives

• University - myths and realities, costs and benefits

In each session we aim to strip away jargon and demystify choices, providing clear explanations of different routes and types of provision, together with information about specific local opportunities. We encourage young people to be independent, critical consumers of career information, showing them not only where and how to find essential information, but also how to interpret, make personal sense of it and read between the lines.

Business and enterprise links. We work in partnership with the local business community to bring young people into the world of work, and employers into the classroom. Activities such as subject-based career master classes and mentoring from young professional role models help young people understand the realities of working life and potential applications of learning.

Making things happenSelf-aware, confident and well-informed about the options ahead; next, young people need to turn their ideas into plans, turn their plans into action and begin to make things happen for themselves.

Career management isn’t a one-off process - it means navigating a continually shifting landscape of opportunities through the transition years and throughout adulthood.

Inspira offers young people expert help to choose their next steps, a range of practical support to implement their plans, and career management skills that equip them for later life.

Individual career guidance. To fulfil the statutory duty placed upon education providers, Inspira offers in-depth career guidance and action planning with independent, qualified careers professionals. Individual guidance sessions lead to an agreed Progression Plan, setting out achievable, meaningful goals.

Effective applications. Workshops and active skills training dealing with all aspects of application and selection – tips for self-presentation, interview skills and practice, advice on developing a powerful CV, personal statements, aptitude tests and more.

Employment and training services. For young people seeking work or training after Year 11 or 13, we can provide comprehensive vacancy and placing services, matching candidates with appropriate Apprenticeship providers and alerting them to the latest local and national opportunities.

Targeted support. We undertake intensive case work with identified students in key target groups, including advocacy, brokerage and referral to specialist services. For those identified as at risk of disengaging this can include sourcing and supporting placements and sustained support during the transition into post 16 learning.

Skills for independence. Whether as a new tenant or university student, we can provide active preparation for independent life. Examples include personal finance education and budgeting skills, healthy eating, reducing risk-taking and improving personal safety to practical know-how for living in your own place.

How we can help

Inspira has been providing career management and personal development to young people for more than ten years. In that time, we have developed innovative and supportive services and inspiring programmes which enable young people to aspire, progress, achieve and succeed in life.

Developing potentialThe foundation for sound career planning is self-awareness. Before young people can be expected to make decisions about their next step in life, they need to understand themselves, what’s important to them and how they want to develop. Without this understanding, career decisions can be haphazard and unsustainable.

Personal development programmes. We design and deliver tailored programmes for groups of young people, addressing single or multiple topics according to need. Exploring values, behaviour, attitudes and skills, with an emphasis upon measurable impact, all of our programmes include individual goal setting and progression targets. Examples include:

• recognising and developing essential employability skills

• self-esteem, improved self-image, resilience

• effectiveness in learning and work

Psychometric tools. Working with the Association of Qualitative Research, Inspira has helped develop a new and unique measure for young people’s emerging skills, strengths and interests. Combined with individual results analysis, the test can help identify aptitude, work and learning styles. In addition, our career-readiness tool helps to identify how prepared learners are for progression, helping to target resources at the individuals most in need of help.

Motivational experiences. We offer young people experiences that stretch and challenge them. We stage residential programmes, employer and university

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Continued career support into adulthood

Hands-on digital skills and creative arts projects

Practical help to access work and learning

Transformational adventure and social action programme for 16/17 year olds

Local programmes of engaging, challenging and developmental community-based activity

Complementary programmes include:

Delivering on statutory duties:Inspira can help all schools and learning providers deliver on their statutory duty to secure and fund access to independent and impartial careers support for all their students.

Solutions and support for learning providers

Inspira works in partnership with schools and other learning providers, delivering independent and specialist support. Let us know how we can help you.

Our career advice team can help you fulfil your career advice responsibilities, raise achievement and improve progression rates. All of our professional guidance practitioners are:

• qualified to Level 6

• members of the national register of careers practitioners

• experienced, locally-based, knowledgeable and bound by a professional code of practice

All learning providers commissioning our full guidance services receive additional support which includes:

• access to holiday and out of hours help for students

• post 16 progression tracking and follow-up, with bespoke reports and analysis detailing student destinations to support school progression measures

• reduced prices for software licences and other resources through our partnership with national providers

• attendance at parent events

• career and personal development networking and briefing events

• curriculum advice and support – personal development, career education, citizenship and work-related approaches to individual subject programmes of study

• policy updates

Delivered by Inspira

We deliver services and programmes at a local, regional and national level on behalf of a variety of funders.

As part of our contracts with learning providers we actively work to attract additional funds and lever extra resources to enhance our partnership.

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High-quality personal guidance: it’s our businessAs they face choices about their future, we know that young people and their

parents place the highest value upon face-to-face guidance from a professional, impartial expert. Get in contact with us to discuss your requirements.

preparationforlife@inspira.org.uk | www.inspira.org.uk | Tel. 0800 435 709

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