The January lockdown put a pause on the start of our 2021 partnerships but Catherine Young, Careers Lead at Kingsbury Green Academy, remained undeterred, and shifted the programme to be delivered to her Year 9 students at home. Their business partner Herman Miller also rose to the challenge with Alex Hemns, Senior HR and Talent Specialist and WEM Mentor Lead, working hard with her volunteer mentor team to make this happen.
We kickstarted the programme with a virtual training session for 15 enthusiastic mentors from Herman Miller, eager to find out how they can get involved in supporting young people with their future career aspirations and career paths. An hour and a half later, after some thoughtful discussion and exploration, we can’t wait to report back on their first virtual group mentoring sessions with students from Kingsbury Green Academy starting in a few weeks.
Our VWEM programme covers the same content as our WEM programme with business mentors supporting students with the aim of raising students’ aspirations, re-engaging them with school, and supporting and guiding each student to build an individual career action plan by the end of the programme.
So watch this space for further updates as this Herman Miller and Kingsbury Green Academy partnership progresses with VWEM.