About our School Business Mentoring for 14-18 year old students
Career Accelerator offers students from diverse groups access 1-to-1 mentorship from professionals working with some of the biggest, most influential or fastest growing companies in the professional world.
Over the course of our programme, students will discuss areas such as career opportunities available within the professional sectors, writing personal statements, creating a great CV and interview skills. As the mentorship is entirely personalised, students can decide the areas they would like to focus on. And all of our mentors are trained in how to provide great mentorship, and are provided resources to support them.
See our latest programme survey results.
If you have any questions about joining the programme feel free to book a call with Career Accelerator’s Head of Youth Programmes Manager Rebecca here.
Why our Schools Programme exists for young people
You are 60% more likely to have a professional job if you are from a higher income background.
State of the Nation (2021)
67% of girls aged 11-21 think that women do not have the same chances as men.
Gender Equality Roadmap (2019)
The employment rate for ethnic minority individuals is 13% lower than for white individuals.
Race in the Workplace (2017)
8 top schools had as many Oxbridge acceptances as another 2894 schools and colleges across the UK put together.
Sutton Trust (2018)
27% of all CEOs are privately educated.
Social Mobility Commission (2019)
Over the course of our programme, students will work towards the following objectives:
- Learn more about career opportunities in the professional sector.
- Make informed subject choices for their post-16 and post-18 options.
- Develop realistic and ambitious career goals and learn the steps to achieve these.
- Develop their interpersonal skills by working with an adult working in the professional sector.
- Build their professional network.
How our Schools Programme works
Promotion, application and interviews
We promote to at least one year group with an assembly, we will then share a link to our Surveymonkey application. Every student who applies will be offered a group interview.
Kick-Off Workshop
The first one-hour workshop focuses on the benefits of mentoring, the skills needed to be a great mentee and setting goals.
3 1-hour mentoring sessions
Students have 3 one-hour virtual mentoring sessions with their mentor. We ask for some flexibility with timings so that they can be adjusted to meet mentor and mentee availability.
Reflection Workshop
The final one-hour workshop encourages students to consider what they have learned from their mentor, reflect on their own engagement in the sessions, and plan what they will do in the future.
Alumni Network
All students will have the opportunity to join our alumni network where they can receive post program support such as additional mentoring and work experience opportunities.
How the Career Accelerator programme achieves the Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance:
Learning from career and labour market information:
Career Accelerator focuses on preparing students for jobs in the professional sectors. The employers who deliver the content in our programmes come from industries which are experiencing a growth in job creation and market size; these include: Cyber Security, FinTech, HealthTech, EdTech, Tech Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Video Gaming, Artificial Intelligence, among others.
Encounters with Employers and Employees:
The mentoring is designed to demystify what it’s like working in different areas of the professional sectors. Career Accelerator is delivered by professional employers who have experience in their respective sectors.
A Stable Careers Programme:
Career Accelerator delivers a stable career programme across the course of one school term providing workshops and mentoring to ensure that students are receiving multiple methods of career support and that this is not done on an arbitrary basis.
Addressing the needs of each pupil:
Career Accelerator provides the students with personalised mentorship led by employees working in the professional sectors, who they collaborate with to identify their career interests, build realistic and ambitious career goals and make steps to achieve these.
Personal Guidance:
Students will receive personal guidance to do with career planning during the mentoring sessions. The purpose of the mentoring is to help students reflect on their interests and strengths, learn about career planning and goal setting and develop realistic goals and a plan of action to achieve these.
The impact of our programme
Our latest post-programme survey results 2022.
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95% of the young people surveyed agreed that their experience on Career Accelerator helped them consider their future educational and career opportunities.
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88% of the young people surveyed agreed that their experience on Career Accelerator helped them set goals for the future.
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97% of young people surveyed agreed that the Career Accelerator programme was very useful to helping them feel more confident in interacting with professional adults.
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91% of young people surveyed chose to join the Career Accelerator alumni network.
Where are they now?
See where our mentees are now and read more about their Career Accelerator experience.
Feedback from our Mentors & Mentees
What our mentees are saying
See all of our video testimonials.
Video Testimonial - Parineeta
Video Testimonial - Mohamed
Video Testimonial - William
Video Testimonial - Tanya
Video Testimonial - Charlotte
What our mentees are saying
See all of our video testimonials.
Video Testimonial - Parineeta
Some captured moments
From our events, workshops, assemblies and mentoring sessions.
The businesses and organisations we work with
