Happy (slightly belated) New Year!
In 2019 we saw incredible growth at WhiteHat and this was definitely true for our educational outreach work where we completed a huge 158 educational engagements reaching just over 14,000 young people, parents, teachers & advisers!
Our School and College Liaison Programme is in its third year and we’ve increased our offer to include a calendar of outreach events aimed at young people, parents and educators. Often these events are delivered in partnership with our amazing charity partners who are supporting the young people and communities across London facing the most challenging barriers to employment.
We’re also very excited to be offering more tech focused outreach activity. The tech sector is booming in London and yet there is a digital skills gap. At WhiteHat we want to make sure all young people have access to our innovative tech apprenticeships at the most exciting companies across London. This increased activity means we’re growing the team and we’re delighted to welcome Akeem, our new Education Partnerships Associate who will further strengthen our relationships with our school and college partners.
Inspiring young people in schools & colleges
Our School & College Liaison Programme aims to inspire students to consider the apprenticeships route, challenge any myths or negative perceptions that may be held by students, parents and teachers and to provide guidance around making a competitive application to the roles(opens new window) WhiteHat has on offer.
In the most part this programme is delivered in the school or college by our very enthusiastic Apprentice Ambassadors, known as ‘Hacktivists’ who volunteer their time to inspire future generations of apprentices, developing their public speaking, confidence and networking skills along the way.
An amazing 69 WhiteHat apprentices took part, delivering 56 talks to Year 11s, 12s and 13s on their personal journeys to becoming apprentices, 18 workshops helping students to complete their WhiteHat applications, 8 parent’s information evenings and 47 careers fairs. A huge thank you to our apprentices for their passion and commitment!
Spreading the word!
New to 2019 was a calendar of events hosted by WhiteHat and partners that allowed young people, teachers and careers advisers to visit WhiteHat, learn about our qualifications, meet our coaching team and current apprentices. Our National Apprenticeship Week Teachers & Advisers Breakfast, which has become an annual feature, was attended by representatives from 42 schools, colleges and charities. Our first ever Open Day was attended by over 100 young people and their parents. This calendar has grown for 2020. All events can be found on our free careers resource www.careerhacker.ai(opens new window).
We were delighted to support our local authority partners in a range of careers activities including the GLA Future x Skills Event, GLA & Livity Launch It Event, Hackney Careers Festival, Islington Council Parents Event, Tower Hamlets Work Path, Lambeth Careers Cluster, Apprentice 19 hosted by City of London and JobCentre Plus across London.
Supporting young people to develop digital skills
The world of work is more digital than ever. WhiteHat’s Tech Apprenticeships are very competitive and only the highest potential candidates will get interviews with WhiteHat’s employers. As such, it’s imperative that we provide opportunities for young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to find out about the tech sector and then develop the skills they need to compete on the jobs market.
Our 2019 Girls' Tech Summer School, hosted at WhiteHat’s office and delivered by our dedicated coaching team, provided 6 weeks of free training to young women across London in Data Analytics and Coding. In December, in partnership with our fantastic employer Colt Technology Services, we hosted an East London Tech Apprenticeships Breakfast to raise awareness of the opportunities on offer for local
young people, right on their doorstep!
Charity & Mission Partnerships
In 2019 we initiated our partnership with Drive Forward, a charity supporting you care leavers into employment. As part of our partnership we’ll be hosting a number of events throughout 2020 and we have a new, dedicated member of our specialist, youth Talent Team supporting candidates from Drive Forward through our application processes.
Throughout the year we were also delighted to support Resurgo Spear, Jamal Edwards Delve, Future Frontiers, We Rise Brixton, 2-3 Degrees and Action for Stammering Children.
Thought Leadership Events
Our thought leadership events bring together our whole community to celebrate and reflect on our mission, everything we’re achieving at WhiteHat and everything there is still to do. This included our National Apprenticeship Week Women Blazing a Trail event in partnership with Investec Bank where we celebrated our fantastic female apprentices and the incredible role models at their companies. In October we hosted our Getting In & Getting On event in partnership with Tandem Bank where we explored supporting individuals from underrepresented backgrounds into work but then importantly ensuring they can thrive once they are there.
We can’t wait to do it all again with the addition of some very exciting new projects and partnerships for 2020!
