The Early Careers Foundation

There are various organisations and charities doing amazing work in increasing social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds. Social mobility is finally a discussion that more people are aware of and more opportunities are becoming available to young people that help to level the playing field across higher education & careers. So how are The Early Careers Foundation programmes different?

Our initiatives aim to empower, enable and support young people from low-income backgrounds to realise their potential in life through their career. They are guided through the formative years of their education, trained in various areas of the business world and key skills, and offered financial support with their post further-education, learning and/or employment. We aim to equip them to enter any Industry/sector that they choose. We run three initiatives, working with young people – provided by our education partners – across the country;

Future Hub
As a part of our early intervention strategy we have an app that dismeantates commercial knowledge to young people in an easy and accessible way. Our app – Future Hub – fills the careers knowledge gap by teaching young people about the commercial world and the career opportunities within it, in a fun and engaging way. Think of it like the DuoLingo for the world of careers! Students from our School Partners can download the app onto their phones and benefit from the custom-built gamified learning programme, co-created with our Corporate Partners. Our close connection to the early careers industry means that the Future Hub will be one of the most up-to-date career advisory platforms for the commercial sector in the UK. The platform will always be growing as industries evolve and new career paths emerge.

Mentoring Programme
When students at our School Partners reach Year 12 they can apply to join our Mentoring Programme. They are then matched with a mentor who they will meet with virtually once a month for the two years of the programme. Our mentoring programme works alongside the school academic year so that our young people can benefit the most from the programme alongside their education. We match registered and trained mentors with a mentee at the beginning of Year 12, at the start of the academic year. Individuals who would like to join as a mentor for the upcoming school year can apply at any point up to September, but must have attended a mentor training session before they can begin volunteering with us.

The Early Careers Fund
Through the fund we address the monetary barrier that often prevents students from achieving their career paths/higher education. This is a means-tested grant that will be available to apply to for the young people who have completed our mentoring programme. The grant will provide £1,000 – £5,000 for up to three years for young people from our programme as they either go into higher education, further training, an apprenticeship, an internship or an entry-level role. Applications to the Early Careers Fund open in August of each year, to young people who are in the second year of their mentoring programme and Year 13 at school. The grant will support young people with living costs as they transition out of education, assisting with the costs often associated with early opportunities and helping young people from low income backgrounds access the opportunities that they aspire to.

Our programmes have been specially developed and designed by experts in the field – our colleagues over at The Early Careers Company! No one knows early careers better, working with organisations across a plethora of industries and functions in order to improve their early careers framework so that anyone can access a great first job… and deliver the best talent.