The Foundation’s partnership with EY Foundation supports young people with barriers to employment, increasing their skills and experience with a focus on careers within the care sector. Originally, CareTech Foundation supported two EY Foundation Programmes: Our Future and Smart Futures.
Smart Futures is a 10-month programme for 16-17 years olds who have been eligible for free school meals, developing employability skills and a paid two-week work experience. Students engage on an accredited course and receive 10 months of mentoring support. We supported 25 students through this programme.
Our Future is a six-month programme for young people qualifying for free school meals who face significant barriers to entering the labour market. This programme develops transferable skills, and all students receive paid work experience, gain a CMI Level 2 adult qualification and six months of mentoring support. We supported 20 students through this programme.
The young people benefitting from EY Foundation’s Smart Futures & Our Future programmes have also been supported by 38 CareTech plc volunteers.
"I have responsibility for ten residential and day centres, but I’ve never been a mentor before. Being a mentor reminded me about why I got into the care sector in the first place. It was fantastic to be able to pass on my passion for the sector, and to see that grow in others."
"My mentee told me she had never had support of this nature before. I also feel the business benefited, as a cohort of young people who had expressed an interest in the industry were brought right into the heart of the business. It’s a really rewarding experience for the mentors and the mentees."
One of our volunteers, Michelle Mendu, was nominated for mentor of the year at the EY Foundation 2020 Impact Awards by her mentee, Yunus Ravat, who said: “I nominate Michelle for the mentor of the year. She is funny and kind who can relate to me. She helped me when thinking about my future and she was confident in me. She also helped me think about different career pathways which made me really think about my options.”
Building on these programmes, a new programme has specifically co-designed with and for care-experienced young people (Beyond Your Limits), aiming to support up to 230 young people in London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester over three years. Recognising this mutually beneficial partnership, the partnership was shortlisted for a Charity Times Cross Sector partnership of the Year Award.
"CareTech Foundation are creative funders looking for opportunities to connect our young people and organisations, while its expertise provided has allowed us to build a new employability programme for young people in care."
