The Talent Foundry was founded back in 2009, with the aim of increasing social mobility by helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds discover what they are amazing at, develop valuable new employment skills and take their first steps into the world of work.
We offer a range of fully funded opportunities to schools and colleges across the country and have 1,600 schools in our network. Our operation model is Design, Deliver and Evaluate and we create bespoke employability programmes, delivering them in partnership with corporate donors. We have helped 60,000 young people so far in the past year and through partnering with organisations like the CISI, we look forward to helping even more.
We focus on delivering programmes that help prepare young people for the workplace, which is why initiatives like the Invest in You programme, which we designed for the CISI, are so important.
Students from more affluent backgrounds often have a head start in understanding, and developing, the soft skills that are required when they enter the job market. They will likely receive help from family and friends who are familiar with recruitment processes to write their CV and to prepare them for interviews.
We strongly believe that the private sector has a role to play in supporting disadvantaged young people For those who come from less privileged backgrounds, with parents who may not do professional jobs, these tasks can be daunting, and struggling to complete them can undermine their confidence before they have even secured employment.
At The Talent Foundry we strongly believe that the private sector has a role to play in supporting disadvantaged young people and in galvanising social mobility in the UK. Businesses can help to generate skills in the workforce they will need to recruit from in the coming years by implementing employability programmes. We are so grateful to organisations such as the CISI who demonstrate a clear commitment to their charitable aims by working with us.
Our partnership with the CISI on the Invest in You programme is a fantastic example of the work we do, and we are delighted that we have been able to expand the roll-out of the programme to Derry, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds following its original, and continued run, in Liverpool. Invest in You centres on both developing employability skills and learning more about careers in the financial services sector.
The programme has been created for students in Years 12 and 13 and takes place over five sessions. It aims to provide those taking part with soft and practical skills, to assist and prepare them for a number of future pathways, including higher education, apprenticeships and employment. Another benefit of the programme is that it encourages students, who may not have thought a job in the financial services sector was for them, to think again.
Each workshop includes a masterclass activity, during which students are invited to ask their CISI mentors questions around the theme of the session that day, for example, core transferable skills and abilities, interview skills, pitching, body language or making a good first impression. The programme also includes activities that are designed to help students improve their CV writing abilities and interview skills, which in turn boosts participants' confidence and self-belief.
We already know from those who took part in the pilot scheme last year that 80% of them felt more confident that they know what to expect in an interview after completing the sessions, compared with just 13% before. The benefit of some professional mentoring to disadvantaged young people before they have to make potentially life-changing decisions about their education or employment cannot be overstated.
The amazing volunteers, including CISI staff and other member firms who take part in the sessions are also provided with a meaningful and high impact volunteering opportunity, enriching their own workplace experience by knowing they are making a real difference to the lives of others.
At The Talent Foundry we truly believe that every child should have the chance to fulfil their full potential, regardless of their socio-economic background, and by working with us on programmes like Invest in You, the CISI is helping us achieve this goal.
Chief Executive,The Talent Foundry
This column was originally published in the March 2021 edition of The Review.
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