Say hello to Careers Camp - Building for the Future of talent through careers preparation

After much anticipation, I am delighted to share that I am starting Careers Camp .

Careers Camp is a careers preparation accelerator that prepares and connects underserved students to high quality opportunities with leading employers across the country.

I had the idea for Careers Camp about 9 years ago when I was doing cover teaching at a local inner city girls school in Birmingham. Often I wondered about how the lack of careers advice, real tangible support and the disconnect between workplace insights and students led to many not being able to achieve their full ambitions.

Over the years, I have been able to convert some of my thinking around what needs to change across various projects and initiatives, and in many cases, that’s where I have come across so many brilliant peers from whom I have learnt an incredible wealth of information.

But to bring all the pieces together in a post-covid world, it had to require a new degree of thought particularly about how the future of work has rapidly transformed and how the future of talent has evolved locally, nationally and globally.

Our mission: to build an empowering careers preparation platform so that any young person no matter who they are or where they come has an increased and equitable access to opportunities to the best companies in the world.

How Careers Camp will empower students

Careers Camp will be delivered through a two-part programme:

1. Knowledge, skills, behaviours and mindset - The first stage will be a range of activities that explores the unique personal insights of students that are applicable to careers. This includes key strengths to core values and finding the right workplace activities.
2. Sector specific interest - The second stage, students will embark upon a range of activities that are designed by employers to simulate working life in series of sector. Careers Camp will deliver against the following a) Finance b) Legal c) Engineering d) Digital, data and tech

Accreditation is important to Careers Camp and on the roadmap to have digital and awarding body accreditation within the next few months.

Using our online platform, students will then be able to submit their profiles for employer branded badges.

Underserved, not disadvantaged

It has always been my belief that students are not disadvantaged because of the circumstances they are in but primarily because of the circumstances have been put in. We will not be calling them ‘disadvantaged’.

Structural inequalities exist within institutions, society and even in the education system which means that girls/women, ethnic minorities, those with disabilities etc miss out on opportunities that are widely and easily accessible to their peers.

At Careers Camp, we aim to address this by running targeted projects to ensure equitable access to opportunities are achieved.

Employer-driven

It’s no secret that employers globally are struggling to fill critical skills gaps whilst also ensuring that they can build a diverse and equitable workforce for the future.

In the UK alone, the number of live vacancies stands at 1.7 million.

By building a platform that is employer led, we can reduce a lot of fluff that has been used in many employability programmes by focusing on quality of learning and access to employers and their insights to make informed career choices.

A sector-based approach allows for more focus with employers and to address the gaps which matter most to industry.

Virtual vs in-person?

The plan initially was to be a purely virtual, online platform. This is typically how many virtual work experience platforms have been built. However, my experience working across 30+ schools and a recent session with young people has shown that incredible empowerment still exists with in-person activities.

Therefore, Careers Camp programmes will begin in-person and managed across our digital platform.

Looking into the future

Our vision for Careers Camp is to be the company of choice for employers, FE colleges and training providers, and schools in supporting the preparation of early talent for the best jobs in the world through creating simple yet effective industry specific programmes.

Firing up the rocketship

Whilst a lot of the work is being done in the background, we will be reaching out to employers to bring them onboard as part of the founding employers group.

The purpose of the group is to help steer the build of Careers Camp whilst being active employers for those who want to reach underserved communities.

So, if you’re an employer and would like to get involved, please click this link: https://airtable.com/shrFHIyHPDHJl0UxJ

A big thank you to those who have supported me over the last few years and I’m really excited about what the next leg of this journey looks like.

Isa