Employers. Schools. Symbiosis.
We enable employers needing science, technology, digital and mathematical skills to talk to pupils in secondary schools in areas of need.
Good employers want to engage with schools. Secondary schools want these employers to talk to their pupils about career opportunities. Employers and schools face challenges understanding each other's ways of working, and intended visits can founder. We Build Bridges CIC works with both sides to overcome the barriers and frictions, to ensure pupils benefit from meeting employers.
Skills gaps in UK industry can be filled by school leavers when education end employers work together.
Encounters between pupils and professionals
is all it takes
Chatting with school pupils is an effective way for employers to increase the diversity of applicants to their job roles.
billion pounds
The UK economy loses £1.5bn per year due to skills shortages in science, technology, engineering and maths.
Gatsby Benchmark
Every year, from the age of 11, pupils should participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer. Guidance from The Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
years old
Participation in career talks with employers can influence pupils' future plans and exam subject choices
We meet an employer
to listen and learnWe ask about what job roles the organisation has now and is planning for in the future, what skills they need, what time they can give to a school and how far they can travel.
As little as a 15 minute talk can have a positive impact for both the school and the employer. We aim for relationships between schools and employers that will perpetuate, for mutual benefit.
We meet a school
to listen and learnWe Build Bridges CIC learns the unique rhythms and needs of the school and works out the best ways for the school to link with employer organisations and businesses. We work with schools whose pupils live in neighbourhoods that have fewer opportunities than those in more affluent areas.
We do not want to
We do not aim to replicate the brilliant work already being done by organisations such as STEM Ambassadors and the Careers and Enterprise Company.
We are the knowledgeable, experienced, on the ground, get things done, Babel fish (but not yellow).
We do want to
Work with both sides of the relationship to ensure needs are met all round: we listen, we liaise, we support, we get on the phone, we work round obstacles. Our aim is to establish such strong relationships between schools and enterprises that they can endure and We Build Bridges CIC is no longer needed.
Employers. Schools. Symbiosis.
Our stories
Why cooperation between schools and employers makes a difference.
