Our Creative & Entrepreneurial Pathways programme works with secondary schools to provide young people in Year 9 to Year 10 with core skills and knowledge to build on their creativity and entrepreneurship in a business environment. We decided to speak with Rachel Howsen, a Programmes Coordinator at Blueprint for All, to explore the key issues that our students face.
Working in the Deptford Green School, our student selection process to be part of the Creative and Entrepreneurial workshops was based on how hard a student is to reach and their chances of facing exclusion or failure of school. The student’s I work with face a lot of challenges, so we must narrow down on what these issues are so we can work with them successfully, to get the best possible outcome. The main but not limited to, challenges that the students may face, include:
- A lack of close access to successful creative professionals and entrepreneurs, that they could use as role models.
- Learning or behavioural difficulties that affect their studies
- A lack of motivation to participate in normal academic lessons
- Unclear vision for their future career
We acknowledge that to solve these problems, the students need a deeper understanding of the career opportunities they have access to in the future, to give them confidence and a vision for their dream career, which is inspiring to see when students start to make progress developments throughout the workshops.
Our first session held by Paradigm Project was insightful, the students reacted positively to the facilitators, with quiet students, in the beginning, speaking up and participating. The workshop allowed them to think outside of the box and focus on their development, skills, and strengths and how they can utilise those in the future and let them see that there are tangible opportunities out there waiting for them.
Another phase of the workshops included Ultra-Education and their focus was to teach students what it takes to be an entrepreneur and the mindset behind business owners. Amazingly, one of the students discovered that her strength is a direct start to understanding what careers path she could follow.
I’m passionate that the Creative and Entrepreneurial workshops have impacted students positively, giving them a safe space and time to think about their future and education, one student fed back to us that “the sessions helped me think more about my future because I’ve never really thought about it before”. This shows the encouragement that students feel to be more motivated to try when it comes to their academic goals.
Overall, the Creative and Entrepreneurial workshops are making favourable strides to nurture and bring talent to light within schools, setting the foundations for a more inclusive society to grow.