The Year Ahead: Elaine Lilley – Mentoring the future of business

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Mentoring will play a key role in our work during 2017.

Building on the foundations laid by our inaugural ‘Mini Exec’ programme, which saw 19 young people from across the county pair up with mentors from the Lincolnshire business community, we will be expanding the programme to involve even more young people in 2017.

Since the project launched, with support from Streets Chartered Accountants and Langleys Solicitors LLP, the mini execs have been given a unique insight into the world of work at the very top level, staying in touch regularly with their business-leader mentors by email, telephone and workplace visits.

They have also been given support with university and job applications and even work experience placements.

Thanks to significant funding from The Careers & Enterprise Company, The EBP’s Project Lumen will help 2,700 young people in Lincolnshire to interact with representatives from businesses.

The project will help to raise awareness and stimulate interest in the range of careers available through business challenges linked to some of Lincolnshire’s biggest growth sectors.

We were also delighted to receive funding from the company to deliver Mission Mentor, a new mentoring programme where we will work with looked after children in school years 8-10, who are at risk of disengaging and dropping out of school.

For many years we have seen the benefits of mentoring and Project Lumen and Mission Mentor will allow thousands more young people to benefit from this experience.

A recent Ofsted report highlighted that many young people are left unprepared for the world of work, saying that pupils who had access to quality work experience benefited from exposure to real life examples of careers. In Lincolnshire over 100 employers have already pledged their support to local schools.

Their help in 2017 will allow young people to gain essential employability skills and make informed decisions about their future career paths by hosting a work experience placement at their business.

If you would like to join the hundreds of businesses, from all sectors and of all sizes, which have already committed to help support and inspire our future business community in 2017, please get in touch to see how we can work together.

We recognise that employers are not just looking for industry specific knowledge but also need employees with transferable skills such as teamwork, creativity, leadership and innovation.

Our work in 2017 will focus even more on developing these skills, whether through the Lincolnshire Show Schools’ Challenge, the Lincoln Knights’ Trail Education Programme or one of our other development programmes.

These events will see us engaging hundreds of primary, secondary and special schools throughout the county.

As the Regional Delivery Partner for National Citizen Service (NCS), we will continue to offer thousands of Lincolnshire teenagers the opportunity to learn the lessons they can’t learn in class and make a huge impact in their local communities through social action.

As the job market becomes ever more competitive and employers expect more than just academic qualifications, 2017 will see us work with more businesses and partners to address these needs and help Lincolnshire become the best place for a young person to make the transition from education to employment.

The EBP wishes all of our existing partners and the new emerging ones, a very Happy New Year.

Please get in touch if you would like to work with our staff to make a difference to young people in 2017. We would be enormously pleased to hear from you.