Speakers

What does it mean to be FutureReady?

A State of the Region look at the aspirations, choices and influences impacting on children and young people in the North East and the economic and social trends that will shape their futures.

With Beccy Earnshaw, Director of SCHOOLS NorthEast, the National Careers Service and the NE and Tees Valley LEPs. 

Character & employability skills

What are employability skills?  How can schools develop the attitudes and attributes students need to succeed? What are the habits and virtues schools can instil in pupils to prepare them for life beyond the classroom?

Laura Gibbon, National Citizen Service - Laura is part of the strategy team for the NCS leading on school and college engagement for the NCS. Before joining the NCS, Laura  worked for the Department for Education, assisting the National College of Teaching and Leadership with their sector communications planning and merger with the National College of School Leadership. Laura was also a Director at a Marketing and Communications Agency and worked on the Department for Education’s ‘recruitment into teaching’ campaign.

Miles Curtis, SkillsForce - Miles has worked with SkillForce for the last 12 years & has seen the organisation go through significant change over that period.  Prior to joining SkillForce, Miles worked in industry & was a Royal Engineer in the Army.  During this period he was involved with camp construction, demolitions, bridging and mine clearance and saw service in Germany, Bosnia and Canada.

Inspiration, experience and opportunities

What influences students’ destinations and progression choices?  How can role models, mentoring and work experience improve social mobility and broaden students’ horizons?

Fiona McCourt, Social Mobility Foundation - Fiona graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2009. She went on to complete an internship with the interfaith charity, Three Faiths Forum.  Since joining the SMF in 2011, Fiona has helped to secure internships and mentors for students on the APP, coordinated residential internships and managed the Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements Scheme. She's also worked designing the first of the charity’s annual reviews and has implemented the City Talent Initiative.  Now Fiona is working to create a network of regional hubs to ensure that our work can be accessed by students across the country. Fiona is currently a governor at Northumberland Park Community School, a 11-16 school in Tottenham.

Mwila Mulenshi, Senior Programme Officer, Future First - Mwila works as a Senior Programme Officer for Future First, delivering Future First’s programme of alumni events across 400 schools and colleges. She brings with her significant experience of delivering government-funded training programmes to boost youth employment, social mixing and community engagement. Mwila joined Future First from The Challenge Network where she worked across London and Surrey, supporting 16 and 17 year olds to connect with their local communities and make a difference. Mwila has a degree in Psychology and is currently studying part-time towards an MSc in Education, Power and Social change at Birkbeck College, University of London

Sonita Alleyne, CEO and Founder, Yes Programme
Sonita is an entrepreneur with a passion for skills, education, employment and learning. For the past twenty years her career has combined being at the helm of one of the UK’s most inventive cross platform media companies, Somethin’ Else, which she founded at the age of 24. In addition she contributed, as a member of the National Employment Panel on the issue of employability and access to work. She was brought up in East London and believes that getting a good education and meeting some inspirational teachers, who made connections to the frankly frightening and unknowable life that started on her last day of school, was key to her success.

Jennifer Barrett, Managing Director of This is Creative Enterprise CIC
Jenny is the Managing Director of This is Creative Enterprise CIC, however her background is in the fashion industry. Jenny started her first company straight after studying a BA (Hons) Fashion Marketing at Northumbria University and travelled internationally selling the collections winning a number of regional business and entrepreneurship awards. Her second label, was set up in 2004, now sold to a company in the USA, this included designing for the prom wear market. Jenny started building her creative education company in 2006, with the intention of developing creative enterprise workshops in schools and colleges particularly within the fashion sector. Since then, the business has grown substantially.

Ryan Gibson, Director of Applied Learning, St Joseph’s Catholic Academy
Ryan is Director of Applied Learning at St Joseph's Catholic Academy in South Tyneside, a school rated as 'outstanding' by Ofsted and designated as 'transforming and leading' by the SSAT. He has led the academy's national specialisms in applied vocational education and innovation since 2007 and was appointed National Lead Practitioner for Applied Learning in 2008/9. In 2010, Ryan was awarded the Prime Minister's Talent and Enterprise Taskforce 'Sinnott Fellowship' in recognition of his innovative work in engaging employers in education and establishing an 'outward-facing' culture that places the school at the heart of the community.

The poverty of aspiration myth

Presenting the evidence on pupil aspirations, challenging perceptions of disadvantaged students and making the case for a new approach to supporting young people to achieve their ambitions.

Sam Baars & Eleanor Bernades - Associates, LKMco (education ‘think and action’ tank)

Sam believes that robust, innovative social research is the key to tackling the barriers that prevent some young people from making fulfilling transitions to adulthood. His PhD in Social Change explored how young people’s occupational aspirations are shaped by the areas they live in, based on fieldwork in a secondary school in Manchester and national level survey analysis. Sam is passionate about linking academic social science more strongly to the communities it studies. His first publication argues that social scientists should endeavour to embed their research within organisations outside academia, drawing on his experience of providing research training for students on the Manchester Leadership Programme.

Eleanor began teaching in 2002, most recently at the RSA Academy in Tipton where she was a Team Leader for Opening Minds helping to design and implement the innovative new curriculum. During this time she was also very closely involved with the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) and completed a secondment with the IBO to develop the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC) with a focus on the Approaches to Learning Course.  Having begun working internationally as an actress at the age of 14, Eleanor originally trained as a physical theatre performer at Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama.

Keynote - What makes good Careers Education: Professor John Holman

Professor Sir John Holman, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of York
Sir John Holman is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of York and Senior Education Adviser to The Wellcome Trust. After studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, Professor Holman taught chemistry in secondary schools for 35 years, spending six years as Head Teacher at Watford Grammar School for Boys. In 2000 he left this post to become the Salters Professor of Chemical Education and Director of the Science Curriculum Centre at the University of York. From 2004-2010, Professor Holman was Centre Director at the National Science Learning Centre in York. In 2006 he was appointed as the Government’s first National STEM Director, with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of the STEM Programme. He has authored or co-authored nearly 20 textbooks and learning resources in science. In the 2010 New Year’s Honours he received a knighthood for services to education.

Making an impact with Careers Education

What makes good careers education? What benchmarks should every school deliver? How can schools develop high quality advice and guidance in the current education landscape?

Jenny North, Director of Policy and Strategy, Impetus PEF - Jenny joined Impetus-PEF from Relate, where she served as Head of Public Policy for six years. Prior to this she held policy positions with Maternity Alliance and New Policy Institute. Her experience also includes working at the Home Office as crime and policing analyst. Jenny holds a degree in Philosophy and Theology from Oxford University.

Andy Pickles, CEO of U-Explore (& 80s Pop Star!) - CEO and founder of U-Explore, a company taking a lead with technology and talented people to bring careers education screaming into the 21st century! U-Explore will set the standard for how young people access information and receive guidance to shape their futures. Andy is an academy sponsor and has spent 10 years developing solutions for careers guidance. Prior to this he spent 25 years in the entertainment industry as a record producer and record label manger, selling over 10 million records.

Nicki Moore, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, International Centre for Guidance Studies
Nicki works for the International Centre for Guidance Studies as a Senior Lecturer and Researcher, having joined in 2009. She is a qualified careers adviser and experienced manager. Her expertise includes supporting frontline careers staff to deliver a first class service and managing the quality aspects of guidance service provision. As a practitioner she has experience of working with a range of disadvantaged and minority groups. She has developed career learning projects in primary, and secondary schools, with training organisations and in the community and has been involved in developing IAG provision. She is a specialist in career learning and careers education curriculum development and has experience in the development and assessment of quality awards for CEIAG.

Mark Tait, Business Director, Three Rivers Learning Trust
Mark began working in education in 2005 following a 20-year career in financial services, mainly as a bank manager. Since 2005 he has worked in a secure children’s home, a local authority early years’ team, a first school, a middle school, a high school and a 6th form. He is currently the Business Director for The Three Rivers Learning Trust.