The Schools Engagement Programme Pilot, launched in January 2024 with grant support from the EIF, has been completed, delivering key event industry career messages to schools in the East of England.
The pilot programme:
- Engaged 6,500 students in 35 schools
- Delivered a consistent and compelling message about career opportunities across the seven core sectors
- Increased student understanding of the UK events industry to 65% post-presentation from an initial 1%
- Received hugely positive feedback from students, teachers and our industry Ambassadors.
More importantly the pilot allowed the team to develop robust and efficient systems and processes to support the delivery of a UK wide programme rollout. This included development of presentation material that was compliant with Provider Access Legislation (PAL).
In addition, PR and marketing support around the pilot has already attracted 250 more School Ambassador industry volunteers across the 4 Nations willing to support the programme when it lands in their region or city.
The UK rollout is scheduled for Autumn term 2024 to Summer term 2025, starting with three new regions with associated sponsors which are:
Hertfordshire – Event Academy, Absolute Production Group, emc3, Smyle, weIMPLEMENT
South Coast (Portsmouth, Brighton, Eastbourne) – Identity, asembl group
Birmingham – NEC Group, DRPG, Neon Arena Services
The sponsors are all supporting the programme to help foster widespread awareness and enthusiasm for a career in the events industry – several more regions with associated sponsors are in planning stages to also launch by the end of the year with a total objective of these first regions covering over 300 schools and engaging over 50,000-100,00 young people, depending on the number of repeat school visits to multiple year groups.
Rick Stainton, founder of The Power of Events, has been amazed at the support the programme is receiving. “I’d like to thank the EIF for helping us deliver such a productive pilot programme – the learnings from it have really helped us refine and improve the experience for young people, the schools and our brilliant industry Ambassadors. The content driven showcase has really worked well and we are excited about taking it into more schools and colleges in these first three regional deployments, thanks to the collaborative support of the sponsors.”
Simon Hughes, Director of The Power of Events added “The industry asked us to do boost awareness of the broad range of event careers and the multiple routes into our industry in the face of stiff competition from other sectors and professions. We would like to invite our partners and supporters to get involved in the programme by sponsoring the rollout into their local region. Alternatively, they could join the growing number of Ambassadors that are helping us deliver this innovative and unique showcase in the schools to attract the talent of tomorrow.”
