ELBA business partners support young people taking part in NCS
This summer, ELBA partnered with National Citizen Service and The Challenge for a third year to deliver a series of workshops for young people from east London. Thirteen ELBA corporate partners welcomed teams of 15-17 year olds to their offices for Career Insight and Presentation Skills sessions, introducing them to their businesses and helping them develop key skills and confidence.
The National Citizen Service (NCS) is the UK’s leading charity for creating a more integrated society. Working at local level to bring together young people from all backgrounds, the charity runs a three week summer course which supports 15-17 year olds to build skills for work and life whilst taking on challenges and meeting new friends. In the final phase of the programme, participants are challenged to devise a social action project based on an issue they are passionate about. In teams, they must come up with an innovative idea and pitch to a panel of judges, competing against other groups for funding to deliver their project.
To help participants perfect their pitch whilst providing an insight into the world of work, ELBA corporate partners hosted a series of Career Insight and Presentation Skills workshops. At each session, volunteers worked with a team of NCS participants to help them hone and develop their presentation, focusing on building both their skills and confidence. Participants also had the chance to get to know the volunteers, learning about their business, professional journeys and current roles. These workshops provided a fantastic opportunity for NCS participants to connect with different people, learn about different organisations, gain confidence in public speaking and develop their communications skills.
ELBA staff facilitated 18 workshops over the summer, with a fantastic total of 125 volunteers and 198 young people taking part. When providing feedback, participants shared how valuable they found the opportunity to work with business volunteers and improve their skills:
“Talking to the people that work here and learning about their individual experiences has motivated me for my future.”
“I met absolutely lovely people who have helped boost my confidence. I enjoyed speed networking and being able to hear different perspectives about careers in general.”
“The feedback was extremely important for us and it helped the team expand our skills.”
Volunteers shared how impressed they were with the commitment of the teams and their willingness to learn and develop. They said:
“What a great group…we were blown away at how quickly they took on board and applied all the feedback and suggestions we gave them.”
“The young people were very engaged and took it seriously… they took all the feedback in.”
“The young people were curious and seemed to listen attentively to the feedback and advice.”
A huge thank you to all of our fantastic partners that provided such an important opportunity for young people from east London:
- Accenture
- Barclays
- Bupa
- Ince
- Linklaters
- Moodys
- Morgan Stanley
- Nuveen
- Royal London
- S & P
- Soc Gen
- State Street
- UBS
