Newcastle Building Society is supporting a County Durham charity’s employability programme to help raise the aspirations of local school children.
Building Self-Belief CIO work with thousands of vulnerable young people in the North East, working to improve their mental health, self-esteem, and life chances, and build stronger communities.
‘Bridging the Gap’ is a youth employability programme run by the charity, which gives sixth form students at Consett Academy the opportunity to develop important workplace skills and improve their employability.
The charity recently received a £5,000 grant from the Newcastle Building Community Fund at the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. The grant is being used to support Building Self-Belief with the cost of delivering the programme, as well creating a film that looks at the impact the programme has had on the students.
Peter Thomas, founder of Building Self-Belief, said: “Our Bridging the Gap youth employability programme works with young people from some of our most deprived communities to help them realise their potential and achieve positive outcomes when it comes to employability.
“Having the backing of Newcastle Building Society has opened doors for our young people to be able to spend time in the workplace environment and gain a better understanding of what’s expected of them as young professionals. We’ve witnessed our young people develop greater enthusiasm for work as well as greater confidence in their abilities, and we couldn’t have achieved this without the support of Newcastle Building Society and its colleagues.”
As part of the programme, we also welcomed the students into our Head Office at Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside, where they were given a tour and took part in mock interviews and delivering presentations to build their skills, confidence and work experience.
Noah Duggan, 17, sixth form student from Consett Academy, said: “I enjoyed the programme as it made me realise how important a good CV is, and how to achieve a good interview. It’s not just about turning up, there’s also lots of prep you need to do to have a good chance of standing out from all the other people interviewing.”
Download the press release (PDF, 144kB).
Image caption: Students from Consett Academy visiting our Head Office.
