The Pledge Partnership enables businesses to work together with educators to provide every young person living, studying and/or working in Cheshire and Warrington with everything they need to succeed in the world of work. With the opportunity to develop employability-related skills and personal qualities whilst in education, there is a choice of employment, training or further education when they leave school.
Employers can work directly with young people, teachers, parents, carers and youth workers to help the local community identify the employment opportunities available.
What is it?
The Pledge Partnership puts employers at the heart of inspiring, informing and communicating with the next generation of employees in Cheshire and Warrington.
The programme is delivered through schools and youth groups. It works to ensure that both have career strategies and delivery plans. With the help of employers, the Pledge provide a coherent programme of inspirational opportunities for both employers and individuals. An example is the growing need for digital and STEM-related skills to help drive productivity across Cheshire and Warrington.
In 2020 the Pledge engaged with:
100% of the mainstream secondary schools and colleges in Cheshire & Warrington
360 employers
29 youth groups and organisations
84 small to medium enterprises (SMEs)
This results in over 450 members across Cheshire and Warrington
Organisations
The Pledge Partnership gives employers direct access to work with young people, schools, and youth groups. Allowing employers to build visibility of their company, promote industry sectors and develop long-standing relationships with schools to build a talent pipeline.
With 100% mainstream schools and nearly 400 organisations engaged with the Pledge, the team works hard to understand employers’ objectives and match opportunities accordingly. Companies get involved for a variety of reasons; to enhance Corporate Social Responsibility agenda; Increase workforce diversity; Expand business networks; Build a local workforce and give back to the community. Whatever the reason there is no ongoing commitment and we will work with you flexibly.
Schools
The Pledge works with mainstream, independent, SEND and alternative provision schools in Cheshire and Warrington and are proud to have 100% engagement with all mainstream secondary schools and colleges in the region.
Support from the Pledge is threefold; the Pledge brings employers and schools together to form a network which is committed to sharing and implementing best practice; Secondly, Pledge Enterprise Advisors, deployed from the Careers Enterprise Company, support schools with strategic development of career provision to help deliver against Gatsby benchmarks.
Lastly, Pledge Facilitators fulfil employer engagement events in schools and ensure the young people have meaningful engagements with employers.
Young People
Over 7,000 young people aged 14-24 have already engaged in Pledge Partnership activities through schools, colleges or youth groups in Cheshire and Warrington.
The Pledge offers the opportunity for young people to meet employers through activities such as CV writing, preparing for interviews, careers fairs, career talks etc. By meeting with employers, it helps to:
Explore different careers and industries in the region and understand progression pathways to achieve your chosen career.
Know what employers are looking for and how to be the best you can be to succeed.
Start to build professional networks to connect with to do work experience or apply for jobs.
Youth Group
By working with The Pledge, we can put you in touch with local employers you can underline the skills you develop with your young people in relation to the world of work, and help your volunteers to understand the huge value of what they do.
We can also help to develop your curriculum to add value to your current offer while increasing your exposure to local businesses which could lead to increased numbers of young people and volunteers.
Also, you can tap into resources that have been produced for other youth groups and schools, as well as become part of a larger network of youth groups through Youthfed and share best practices.
If your organisation can support employers to engage with young people in Cheshire & Warrington, please contact Sam Norfolk via sam.norfolk@871candwep.co.uk
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