‘The Trial’. August 2014.

By Duncan McCombe

Foreword by Duncan McCombe

“During my time in education I wanted to do a variety of things as my career. I’ve wanted to be a builder, a gardener, a teacher, a stuntman, a Walt Disney World cast member, and my greatest ‘fad’; I had my heart set on becoming an actor. With many others in between, that’s just what I can remember. This may look like I would be sorted for leaving education, with all these options, but the truth was I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do.

I wanted to go onto University after completing my A-Levels, and I was certainly encouraged to do so, but the truth is it just wasn’t for me. That became rather clear when I was sat around my dad’s kitchen table on the morning of the UCAS deadline and instead of narrowing my choices down to 5 applications I was trying to think of 5 courses to apply to! I had three written down; Filmmaking at Manchester Metropolitan University and Drama and Film Studies both at Liverpool John Moores University. So, at that moment I decided to take a gap year. I wasn’t prepared to waste 3 years of my life (and at least £50,000) doing something that I wasn’t sure about. During this year I was going to get as much experience as possible and enable myself to make an informed decision about going to university in September 2014; and that was the best decision I have ever made.

Towards the end of my time at college I started attending various networking events and became an ambassador for Career Academies UK which gave me the opportunity to tell my story to lots of important people at high profile venues including; education experts at The Etihad Stadium, bank managers in training at Barclays (Spinningfields, Manchester) and college students and parents at Salford City College, Media City UK. These opportunities were an incredible eye opener for me, actually that’s quite an understatement, they were so much more than that. As a child I had a strong belief that I did not want to work in business. I didn’t want to work in an office, 9 till 5, and have to wear a suit. Although now, I have a burning desire to run my own business, complete polar opposites I know! So what made the difference? Well at these events I attended I got to see what business is really like, it’s so much more than being

stuck in an office, 9 -5 suited and booted, it’s whatever you make of it!

It was the chance to see it with my own eyes; talk to people and experience it that really made the decision for me; and there and then, Network Young was born.

It became so clear. It isn’t possible for one single career adviser to tell you, in detail, about the vast enormity of careers out there. For me, that isn’t an informed decision. They don’t know the secret perks that could seal the job for you such as; the opportunity to mentor a young person, a cinema screen to watch the World Cup on or the chance to spend 9 days cycling across Africa raising money for charity. Equally they don’t know what the commute is like every morning, what the 5am alarm clock sounds like and all those other factors. For all this you need to go directly to the source and that is what I set out to do.”

Duncan McCombe, Founder

What is it?

Network Young is a 5 week programme in schools for students aged 14-16 aimed at helping them develop high quality, professional networks which, in turn, will aid their career choice. This is done through 5 one hour sessions after school in which we bring in guest speakers and experts to lead workshops.

Our aims

Teach students what a professional network is and the importance of having one

Start and develop students’ professional networks

Introduce students to a number of different careers, giving them the option and resources to explore them further and make informed decisions about their future

Teach and improve upon students’ soft skills

Help students to become more employable when they leave education

The trial programme -

Week 1 – Duncan McCombe, Stewart McCombe (William Ritchie) Jim Clarke (The Apprentice Academy) Week 2 – Charlotte Green & David Middleton (Grant Thornton) Week 3 – Georgina Tripp (gunnercooke) Week 4 – Phil Jones (Brother UK) Week 5 – Ann Davis (BizWizUK)

In the 1 hour sessions we aim to inspire, motivate and teach the students. In their own time outside these sessions students are given the resources (Directory of Contacts) to develop their networks and speak to people in industry, giving them the opportunity to ask the probing questions and find out the truth about their dream job.

To see if Network Young was really going to work in practice we decided to trial the 5 week programme at Duncan’s old high school, Bramhall High in Stockport. We chose Bramhall High School because it was Duncan’s old school but also, more importantly, because their head teacher, Heather Cooper, was asking for “a mixed economy of adults” to come into her classrooms (quote from The Education Agenda, Insider Magazine, October 2013); exactly what we were offering. The trial ran for 5 weeks, every Tuesday from 3:05pm-4:00pm in the library. Starting on 3/6/14 and ending on 1/7/14.

We initially marketed the trial by sending out letters to all year 10 students, but this didn’t work and we only received 2 applications back. The biggest reason for this was they didn’t understand what Network Young was. Other reasons were; not enough time due to exams and a school show being at the same time. Two students were not enough to run it and the trial was postponed. On the second attempt Duncan went into every form group to speak to all year 10 students, this enabled him to answer any questions and really explain what was being offered. After this we received 8 applications in total, enough to go ahead!

The Directory of Contacts

As well as the 5 week programme, students also gain exclusive access to the Network Young Directory of Contacts. These 25 people have been carefully selected by Network Young and have agreed to engage in conversation with all Network Young students about their careers. The students will have the opportunity to speak to somebody who has a career in the industry they are interested in going into or equally they can speak to somebody who has a career in an industry that they have never even heard of before. The students can ask the members of the directory anything they want from what their job is like? What they would have to do to get a job in that field? Or even what the dress code is for that type of job? They can ask whatever is important to them in a job and the beauty of the directory is that they will get an honest answer because the people they are asking do the job day in, day out, so they know exactly what it is like. This is all part of helping the students make informed decisions about their career choice.

During the sessions in the school, students will be given help and advice on how to approach the members of the directory. We’ll do this by helping them construct emails, advise them on the best people to contact and help them to build relationships.

Once the programme is complete the students will then have a skillset which will enable them to sustain their new network. They will then be able to pull on this when necessary throughout their careers.

At the moment all dialogue is done via email which is sent through the teacher and Network Young. In the future we aim to have a website where all dialogue can take place in one secure location. The directory members can put forward whatever contact details are best for them also and be contacted in a way that suits them.

The directory continues to grow on a daily basis, and through the members’ extended networks, we are confident of introducing students to contacts across most industries.

Charlotte Smith Mistral Group

Chris Hardman Enterprise Ventures

Christine Piper ITV

Darren Hutchinson Dreamscope TV

Darryl Cooke gunnercooke

Duncan McCombe Network Young

Georgina Tripp gunnercooke

Graham Bond Baker Tilly

Inness Mattinson Inness Design

Jennifer McCarthy Hugh Joseph McCarthy Solicitors

Jim Clarke The Apprentice Academy

Karen Young Hays

Kate Jones Inspired Lives

Lindsay Garman Leonard CurtisBusiness Solutions Group

Lucy Green Contact

Nazma Ghafoor The Apprentice Academy

Pamela McColl ConwayMcCollSolicitors

Paul Roberts Deloitte

Paul Smith Duff & Phelps

Sami France Design By Day

Sinead Flood UCFB

Steven Lindsay CLB Coopers

Stewart McCombe Enterprise Ventures

Sven Hanger Stark Brooks

Tom Rogers Stark Brooks

My View

Overall I was happy with the trial. The demographic of students was great; they all really wanted to be there and really wanted to learn which was good to see. I really enjoyed the opening session. It was fast paced with three speakers and kept the audience alert. This definitely worked best but I wouldn’t be able to get three speakers in each week. Instead I have worked independently with a teacher on how to improve the sessions and make them all as engaging as this. Week two was a panel discussion with two employees from Grant Thornton, Charlotte Green and David Middleton. I opened the session by explaining the Directory of Contacts. I gave them all a hard copy of the directory and we talked through how to write emails, why you would want to talk to the members and began looking at building networks. The panel style session had a slower pace than the previous week, although all the students did ask a question about a career in accounting at some point so they were engaged.

On the third session we had a question and answer session with lawyer, Georgina Tripp, a partner at gunnercooke, which was a great session for the student who came with a clear interest in becoming a barrister due to family influences. Both George and the students seemed to get something out of this hour. George provided some really good insights into a career in law and the students asked relevant questions about how to pursue such a career.

The fourth week was another guest speaker; we had Phil Jones, Managing Director at Brother UK. Phil told a great story about his career to date telling students how he went from working in an ‘EastEnders style pub’ in the East End of London to becoming a managing director. This session definitely achieved the goal of inspiring the students to go on and achieve great success in their careers. Another moment of magic happened on his day, when a student asked how he would go about getting work experience.

Phil gave the response of “Write a letter to the HR depart…” but before he had finished the student had responded “But I know you!”, which was very clever and taken well by all in the room. So Phil invited the student to send him an email. This particular student set up a lot of opportunities and it was great to see them make full use of the exposure to great business people. I noted down on this day that I thought this session would work well with a group of college students, I believe they will get a lot out of an hour with Phil Jones, especially business studies students.

The final session was the LinkedIn training session run by Ann Davies which I though was excellent. She kicked off the session with a very engaging video which set the tone for the session and gave a quick overview of what she was going to talk about over the next 45 minutes. She explained, clearly, the purposes of LinkedIn and how to set up a basic profile.

We then went on to discuss personal brand online and about how you present yourself over social media in this current climate; telling real stories about our experiences. The students really saw the relevance and seemed to be taken aback by the fact that what you tweet/put on Facebook today can affect you in your career 10/20/30 years down the line. It was good to see the message getting across early so students can tailor their social image accordingly.

On the whole I was very happy with the 5 weeks.

Student Feedback

This question represents the starting point of the course and can be used as a benchmark to monitor the progress of students. For the 57% of students who knew what they wanted to do we aimed to help develop their knowledge of a career in that field and help them to make an informed decision about whether that is the right career choice for them. For the 43% of students who didn’t know what they wanted to do we aimed to showcase to them a variety of careers to open their minds to what’s out there.

When I started Network Young I knew what I wanted to do as a careeer.

If you did - I now know more about the career I want to go into.

If you didn’t - I now know what I want to do as a career or have a better idea.

With regards to the 57% students who did know what they wanted to do 100% of them have left with a better knowledge of that career. This should now enable them to make a more informed decision about that career choice.

Out of the 43% students who didn’t know what they wanted to do we can see that 67% of these students do in fact now have a better idea about what they want to do even though they didn’t know what they wanted to do when they started. This is the really important one as it shows the amount of people who now know what they want to do as a career or have a better idea after not knowing at all at the beginning of the course.

I understand what a network is as a result of the programme.

I have started to develop my own network which I can maintain and grow.

I now feel more prepared for leaving school.

I understand the importance of having a network following the programme.

Both these charts show a 100% success rate as everybody now understands what a network is and everybody understands the importance of having a network. We are really glad with these results as the main emphasis of Network Young is on networking so to have everybody understand what it is and the importance of it is really good.

This chart really reflects the work of the Directory of Contacts, a vital part of the programme. 71% of students said they did start to develop their own network which they can maintain and grow, which shows a good success rate. The people they are referring to are the people who came into the sessions to talk so that’s great that they feel they have added them to their network. This statistic will improve in courses to come with the addition of a website where all communication between students and directory members can take place.

Network Young has an aim of preparing students for leaving education but also preparing them for progressing through different stages in their careers, the first one being leaving high school (in 12 months for this group of students). The data in this graph is really good to see as it shows another success with 100% of students agreeing that they feel more prepared for leaving school and 57% of those strongly agreeing.

Student Feedback

Would you recommend us to friends? Would you come to anther programme with new speakers?

These final 2 charts are also very pleasing as they show that 100% of students will both; come again and recommend us to friends. This proves to me that the customer likes the product and we got the student demographic right. We always knew that the biggest challenge would be to get the first group of students to buy into a brand new concept so we are glad that these eight completed it and will tell their friends about it. We were also informed that students were talking about us on the school corridor which is really positive.

According to the feedback this shows which sessions students enjoyed the most -

Week 1 – Introduction with Duncan McCombe, Stewart McCombe (Enterprise Ventures) Jim Clarke (The Apprentice Academy) Week 5 – Linkedin training with Ann Davis (BizWizUK)

Week 2 – Guest speakers from Grant Thornton Charlotte Green & David Middleton

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Student Comments

What did you enjoy the most?

“Learning about careers I am interested in”

“The LinkedIn session”

“Phil Jones talk and Grant Thornton”

“I enjoyed learning about accounting with Grant Thornton”

“Knowing more about the different opportunities and careers to go into”

“The people”

What do you think could be improved?

“More variety or more weeks so you can learn about more careers”

“Different activities rather than just speakers”

“More interaction”

“More contacts and more information on LinkedIn”

“More interactive”

“Unsure, I liked all sessions”

Teacher Feedback

Louise Clifton was my primary contact at the school and it is her who we worked with in putting the programme on there. At the end of the programme she also provided feedback.

She agreed that students gained knowledge of a selection of careers available to them, helping them to make informed decisions, students started to develop their own network which they could maintain and grow and students are better prepared for leaving high school. We were pleased with these responses. We were even more pleased by the fact that she strongly agreed that students were taught what a network is and also the importance of having a network, this is one of our fundamental aims. She also said she would recommend us to colleagues and take part in another programme with different speakers.

The biggest piece of feedback she continually gave back was to break down the sessions into 15-20 minute blocks and we completely agree with this. She said that this will motivate the students more and retain engagement which would make it easier for the students to take something away from the sessions. Another piece of feedback she gave a lot was to put the programme into a one day offering that schools could buy into for extracurricular activity days or careers days.

Louise’s top 3 sessions were:

Week 5 - LinkedIn training session with Ann Davies from BizWizUK

Week 4 -Guest Speaker from Brother UK, Phil Jones

Week 3 - Q&A with Georgina Tripp from gunnercooke.

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Speaker Feedback

“I remain totally supportive of Network Young, and was privileged to participate in the very first session.

The event was very well organised, the students arrived on time and were attentive, and Louise, the link teacher, was very supportive.

I speak to everyone about Network Young and see it as a key opportunity going forward. There is a clear need for this type of service.

In terms of feedback, I would like to be more connected with the other speakers, understand the whole picture, and learn more about the student journey. I would have liked more formal communication around my involvement, giving me clear directions as to my participation, as well as reminders immediately prior.

Always willing to present again.

Good luck!”

Stewart McCombe, William Ritchie

“I enjoyed taking part in my session in the Network Young programme and I would be happy to take part again. I am happy to tell other work colleagues about it and have already informed relevant business people about the programme. It was well organised, I was well briefed beforehand and the introduction on the day was good by Duncan.”

Jim Clarke, The Apprentice Academy

Review The Future

Positives

We spoke to every year 10 student, class by class, and secured 8 people for the trial

Phil Jones invited a student to send him an email regarding work experience at Brother UK due to his initiative of simply asking him mid- session

The LinkedIn session was great and went down really well. The use of visuals and a video was good

The teacher and all students would recommend the programme to friends and colleagues and partake in another programme

All students understand what a professional network is and the importance of having a professional network

The speakers are willing to take part in more sessions

Improvements

We need to market the programme to the students better so they understand what it is and the importance of it, therefore increasing the number of attendees

The sessions need to be broken down into ice-breaker sessions, group/ individual work and tasks

Bring the LinkedIn session forward. The Introduction session will always come first so possibly always have LinkedIn second

Students asked for more sessions and speakers

Speakers want to be more connected with the other speakers, understand the whole picture, and learn more about the student journey. They would have liked more formal communication around involvement, giving clear directions as to participation, as well as reminders immediately prior

Create a one day programme compressing the 5 weeks into one day

The introduction of a website will make the Directory of Contacts a lot easier to use and increase its use

After a successful trial we are very excited about taking Network Young forward. We have learned a lot through this process but most importantly we have demonstrated the need for this service and that it works. The fact that only 2 students showed interest initially proves that students don’t see the importance of thinking about a career early on and building contacts from a young age.

In the 2014-2015 academic year we would like to run 5 more programmes in local high schools. As well as this we would also like to explore putting on a programme in a college in Stockport as we believe there is definitely a market for this service in higher education.

Over this year, we will focus on improving the quality of the sessions as well as creating a one day offering, growing the portfolio of people involved and increasing the variety of industries. We will also work hard on the alumni aspect of things so Network Young can grow and the student journey doesn’t end after the 5 weeks.

Call to Action

Thank you for reading the Network Young evaluation. Please see below the various ways in which you, your business or your school can get involved with the programme.

For Businesses - Sponsor a year or a single programme

For Professionals - Get introduced to us by somebody already involved in Network Young and offer your time as a guest speaker or directory member

For Schools/Colleges - Get in touch and book in a programme for your school or college

Contact - Duncan McCombe, Founder

duncan.mccombe@outlook.com

www.networkyoung.co.uk

Twitter: @Network_Young

Thank You

Network Young would not have been able to come as far as it has in its first year without the incredible support and generosity of the people of Greater Manchester. To all that have been part of the journey so far, we thank you.

Stewart McCombe, William Ritchie

Sally Toumi, Stark Brooks

David Harrison, Accenture

Inness Mattinson, Inness Design

Paul Smith, Duff & Phelps

Lucy Green, Contact

Sinead Flood, University College of Football Business

Heather Cooper and Louise Clifton, Bramhall High School

Jim Clarke, The Apprentice Academy

David Middleton, Grant Thornton

Charlotte Green, Grant Thornton

Georgina Tripp, gunnercooke

Phil Jones, Brother UK

Ann Davies, BizWizUK

Each and every one of you in the

Directory of Contacts