Future Dreaming 2024 | Engaging employers and people in work through technology "Inspiring the future"

The disconnect between
young people’s career
aspirations and skills and
labour market demands
The OECD’s Dream Jobs report
based on analysis of PISA 2019
found that despite the significant
changes in the labour market
over the last 20 years young
people’s career expectations
have changed little. If anything,
they have become more
concentrated in fewer
occupations, are frequently
unrealistic and are distorted by
gender and social norms. Their
aspirations are often shaped by
their families, people in the local
community, social media, and a
lack of knowledge and
experience of the world of work.
This results in a mismatch
between the jobs and careers
young people aspire to and the
realities of the labour market,
which risks contributing to skills
and labour shortages in the
economy.
Tackling the disconnect
One way of tackling this
disconnect is to provide young
people with opportunities to
interact with a diverse range of
people from different
backgrounds, doing different
jobs, in different sectors and in
different places. Research by
the Education and Employers
charity has shown that such
encounters help broaden young
people’s horizons, raise
aspirations, challenge gender
and ethnic stereotypes, increase
motivation, improve attainment,
reduce the likelihood of them
becoming unemployed, and
increase their earning
potential. The OECD’s Career
Readiness report highlights the
importance of such authentic
encounters, that they should be
frequent, varied, and start early
in primary school.
Connecting schools and
employers at scale and
low cost
The challenge is to enable
schools to connect with
people from the world of work
in an effective, efficient, and
equitable way. Typically,
schools in urban and affluent
areas have much better access
to professionals from the world
of work than those in rural and
remote areas.
What is required is a system
which is quick, easy, and
trusted for teachers and
employers/ employees, which
enables them to connect with
each other. Something which
allows teachers, wherever
they are in the country to, in a
matter of seconds to find
volunteers from the world of
work that most suit the needs
of their students and make
direct contact.

Inspiring the Future is the result of
extensive consultation between
government, education, employers and
charities.
It uses highly bespoke Salesforce
Customer Relation Management
software with integrated mapping.
It makes it very quick and easy for
people from the world of work to signal
their willingness to volunteer and for
teachers to contact them.
It has been developed and refined over
12 years by the Education and
Employers charity and been replicated
in a number of countries.

.
.
Its quick
It enables teachers instant free access to a huge and
diverse database of inspirational volunteers from the
world of work
Its easy
Teachers can select the volunteers they want and send
them a message through the automated system
Its trusted
Working with schools, professional bodies representing
education, government, local authorities, trade unions,
employers, sector groups, professional bodies and
third sector organisations
It is truly national – available to all
schools in the country
It enables local, regional, and
national campaigns on specific
sectors and issues
The use of technology means that
there are significant economies of
scale and the running costs are low
The biggest difference volunteers
make is on children from
disadvantaged backgrounds who
often don’t have access to such
diverse and positive role models
And, as well as young people being
able to meet people in person who
live and work in their local
community they can also interact
with employers /employees virtually
giving them the opportunity to meet
an incredible diversity of role
models from across the country in
way that has never been possible
before
Key features of the approach

Teachers can browse
tens of thousands of
volunteers via an
interactive map or as a
list
They can filter
volunteers by job title,
sector, subject,
languages, diversity and
inclusion, former
students, in-person or
virtually, different routes
and pathways e.g.
apprenticeships/HE
Teachers can read
detailed profiles and
shortlist volunteers that
are most suitable for
their student need
They can then send
volunteers an invite at the
click of a button.
Once the invites have been
sent, the automated event
management system
handles communication with
volunteers, cutting out the
admin and making it simple
and quick for busy teachers

The technology
• Enables real-time reporting on an
extensive range of criteria
• Provides, tracking, and monitoring and
customised reports for government
departments, employers, funders etc.
• Regional / school level analysis
• Phase of education
• School inspection rating
• Rural / urban classification
• % of pupils eligible for free school meals
School level analysis includes:
• 18 data points per pupil
• Number of young people benefiting
• Number of teachers
• Teacher roles
• Invitations sent
• Activities created

Every school now has direct access to diverse role models
from all levels and sectors:
• apprentices to CEOs
• archeologists to zoologists
• 4,000,000 + interactions between young people
and employers and their employees
• 90,000 volunteers registered from 5,000+
employers
• 11,500 schools and colleges signed up
85% + of secondary schools and colleges
35% + of primary schools
• 25,500 teachers registered
www.inspiringthefuture.org

Future Dreaming 2024 | Engaging employers and people in work through technology "Inspiring the future"

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