Aviva Community Fund has provided £556 of match funding
Personal Development Workshops For Young People
Rainham, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Funding development and employability skills workshops for 14 - 18 year olds to reduce the skills gap students from our community face.
The Problem
Students from less privileged backgrounds often miss out on learning the so-called employability skills required once they leave education. This means that, even when they achieve excellent academic grades, they can still struggle when reaching the jobs market.
Our founders experienced this personally with Zoe and Steph both achieving well academically and pursing an interest in Engineering and Law respectively, but finding that academic grades were not all that was needed to succeed. The ability to communicate effectively, network, market yourself and your professional brand, the characteristics of an entrepreneur needed to thrive in a workspace, and the ability to manage your wellbeing (to name a few core development areas) were equally important in our helping our founders be successful in their careers to date. This is one of the main reasons why our founders started Doceo.
Our research shows that employers are generally unsatisfied with the proficiency young new joiners have in employability skills. Employability skills are increasingly being prioritised, and are highly prized amongst recruiters (ICIMS, 2017). As automation increases these human skills will be increasingly important (Forbes, 2017). There is an increasing need for organisations like Doceo to provide an accessible platform for students to have access to employability skills that will set them up for life.
We also prioritse wellbeing workshops for students as we've found that there is mounting economic and social pressure coupled with changes in the exam system causing stress for teens as they feel the pressure about getting good grades. As The Guardian reports the ”system is causing stress-induced illness” (May 2018) and “pupils aren’t given advice and strategies to help them cope” (April 2018). This has been worsened by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Our focus is on supporting the young people who use our services, to equip them with the skills they need to thrive after education.
Our Solution
Case Studies
Our young people experience this problem in many ways. Through our survey of 150 young people we work with, they identified the following challenges:
• Interrupted education during the pandemic has made them concerned about accessing quality further training or employment: Our social media platforms continually invite residents to update us on their young peoples’ needs and our young people have expressed their concern with lack of information surrounding financial literacy, different routes available to them after education, personal branding, entrepreneurship, wellbeing, communication, productivity and SMART goal setting. This is particularly worse for the young people we work with, of whom 97% identify as coming from a BAME background, many of whom do not have access to communities or resources that can fill this information gap for them.
• Clarity on communicating their concerns with others including their parents and school support systems and advice on how young people can receive further mental wellness support.
We trialled a pilot programme in 2020 - 2021 where we produced webinars and YouTube series on financial literacy for students aged 14 - 18, and received positive feedback from, Child A, a year 11 student who said "I have loved being a part of the Ambassador programme, and have truly appreciated all the opportunities it has given me." Our pilot cohort are helping us grow these services by providing us with qualitative feedback through our trustpilot and surveys conducted on Instagram to help more students in the community.
We also encourage ongoing feedback and open dialogue on what our young people need through our monthly newsletter which encourages students to have an active say in the planning and execution of our services.
From a previous webinar students have already shown that they receive value:
“Doceo Tuition has been really helpful when it comes to how I could improve on productivity and planning goals. I'm so grateful to have attended webinars that offer the kind of advice Doceo Tuition does for a free price. I am looking forward to their future interactive sessions.” – Feedback from Child b, a year 13 student who attended doceo webinars and has now gone on to a Russel Group University
Who Are We
- Established in 2019, and now with a core team of 11 people across various professions and universities, passionate to develop students
- Reached over 400+ students in first 9-months of operation
- Vision to support 10,000 students by 2024
- Wide range of programmes and offerings tailored for students across key development areas
How We Work
We provide bespoke workshops, many of which are delivered by volunteers, and belong to Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds to provide role models for the majority of students who use our services. They work with our young people, on the phone or via our online workshops.
- We offer 6 and sometimes more sessions over the course of a year in addition to our flagship mentoring and coaching programme and careers fair.
- As an organisation we value safety, integrity and community. All our staff and
volunteers who have direct contact with our students have DBS checks and safeguarding is at the centre of everything we do
Doceo aims to support young people with employability skill development, many of our students come from deprived and disadvantaged areas, where there are barriers to accessing employability skill development including finances and lack of knowledge of existing opportunities. The sessions that we provide are designed to help our students fulfil their potential and so every session is tailored to the needs of our community the goals that they collectively hope to achieve.
- 97% of the students who use our programmes identify as being of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds.
- Up to 27 % of the students who use our programmes are eligible for free school meals.
- Therefore the areas that we work in have a high proportion of deprived and disadvantaged young people.
Programmes and Offerings
- Events, Webinars and Workshops (online or in-person)
- Workshops for Schools in various communities (online or in-person)
- Aspiring Leaders Programme (flagship, online, 1-week long dedicated programme for high achievers with 9 months mentoring provided on completion of the programme)
- Career Carousel (online or in-person, careers fair)
- Bespoke online resources and materials for development
- Community of peers, graduates and professionals facilitating student growth
Key development areas
- S.M.A.R.T. Goals
- Financial Literacy
- Entrepreneurship
- Communication
- Productivity
- Personal Branding
- Wellbeing
Various channels to support and meet partner goals
- Event sponsorship and collaboration
- Year-long content and social media collaboration
- Partnership in flagship Aspiring Leaders Programme
- Multiple bespoke, video, graphic content and newsletter packages
How Your Donations Will Help
Your donations will help us keep our personal development workshops and accompanying resources free for 600 students for the duration of 1 year. Running one workshop costs £500 so with your support, we will be able to run 6 workshops and create helpful resources for the students in our community.
How You Can You Find Out More
If you're interested in reading more about our story, please check out our 2021 impact report here: Read Our Impact Report
We greatly appreciate any support you have to offer.
This project successfully funded on 13th May 2022