Growing Ambitions – career speaker volunteering in education
Microsoft UK is just one of the high profile organisations whose employees are volunteering with award-winning, not-for-profit Growing Ambitions at www.growingambitions.org. Growing Ambitions provides people UK-wide with opportunities to give half hour talks in schools, colleges and universities about their jobs and careers. Young people need real career information from real people.
Volunteer sign up in minutes at www.growingambitions.org to be invited in to speak to young people in their community - a 20-minute talk and 10 minutes' questions. With the easy one-click opt out any time – people are not signing their lives away! Large employers, membership organisations and high traffic websites are putting the ‘white label’ volunteering portal on their own website/intranet, in their own livery. This impactful CSR activity is making a lasting difference to the UK’s future. Visit www.growingambitions.org
Case history
Sue Hunter, freelancer in Marketing Communications
“I have been working in marketing and PR for many years and jumped at the chance to volunteer with Growing Ambitions. I’d been looking to do some volunteering in schools but couldn’t spare much time so just having to give half an hour at a time suits me down to the ground. It’s also just a short drive to get to any of my local schools and colleges and even the Universities in Southampton are very close.
“What I like about this form of volunteering is knowing that I could be inspiring young people to consider a career in my field when it hadn’t perhaps crossed their minds before. Marketing is so broad – with business to business, and business to consumer and of course you have to know all about the fields you are working in. It’s great to be able to tell the young people about the day job and the challenges – most have no idea what’s really entailed in the every day.
“There are a number of state secondary schools in my area that specialise in Business and Enterprise, so those students really benefit from a talk like mine as it fleshes out the subject and gives it reality. I’ve done PR for all sorts of organisations from charities to marine, with animal and pets a particular interest of mine. Kids have plenty of questions and its great that they get access to speakers like me to give it them ‘straight’!”
