UK Career Academy Foundation

Charity Awards

'Raising awareness of the business world'

Business charitable support for young people tends to focus on the extremes, either the disaffected or the gifted and talented. As a result, 12 senior members of multinational companies got together and decided to target the significant, but often overlooked, middle achievers. They did this by adapting the career academy model of the US to a UK context, via the formation of the UK Career Academy Foundation in 2002.

The Foundation establishes career academies, delivered through existing schools and colleges. Students receive a three A-Level business studies curriculum, alongside internship, business mentoring, seminars and visits. "The students benefit from a focused and applied business programme," says director Martyn Drain. "They gain an idea of what the business world is like and are able to make a much more informed choice. It is all about raising aspirations. We work primarily in inner city schools where typically they do not have a family background of working in business."

From a pilot in three institutions supported by a handful of companies, the charity now impacts on the work of over 130 employers and 75 UK schools and colleges. Student performance has also been impressive. As one student, Sultana, says:" I used to think that the people in Canary Wharf were really different and that I was invisible to them. Working with them, I realised they were just like me. The Career Academy has given me a glimpse of a world that I thought I couldn't be part of."

Martyn Drain
Director
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5LB
020 7986 5494
Reg no: 1092891
www.careeracademies.org.uk

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