businesses to engage with their future
workforce, building awareness of their
employer brand among young people in
their local area.
Be the Change Programme Objectives
are:
• to positively impact young people’s
happiness, hope, confidence,
relationships and employability skills
• to increase business mentoring in
schools
• to develop the life skills and
employability skills of young people
• to create sustainable networking
opportunities for young people
• to build stronger and more meaningful
partnerships between local schools and
businesses
• to encourage sharing of best practice
for careers teaching between local
schools
• to create more meaningful work
experience opportunities for young
people
• to strengthen the profile of local
employers and related career
opportunities
• to inspire young people to consider
their route into employment whether
that be through FE, HE or via
apprenticeships, traineeships or work
experience placements
There are currently two programmes
in progress in Bexhill and Leicester
sponsored exclusively by Hastings
Direct and three programmes running
across the south coast in Coastal
West Sussex, Brighton and Hastings,
which are supported by the Sussex
Learning Network and the Universities
of Brighton, Chichester and Sussex,
Coast to Capital LEP and the Careers &
Enterprise Company, Heart FM, Brighton
& Hove County Council, West Sussex
County Council and Hastings Borough
Council, as well as more than 30 Sussex
organisations from a variety of sectors
who have provided mentors.
Written by Rosanna Farrar, Be the
Change Project Director
Sussex Mentor James Dempster:
“It’s about giving kids hope”
Managing Director of Cobb Digital,
James Dempster, discusses why he
loves being a Be the Change mentor and
his own journey from school to running
the Brighton-based digital marketing
agency.
“I didn’t know a lot about the Be
the Change programme when I was
approached to become a mentor, so I
went to the pilot last year and absolutely
loved it. I really think that there is a big
disconnect between school and work.
There is a lot of pressure on young
people to go to uni and only think about
work after university – which is great, but
I feel that there are also a lot of people
that don’t need to go to university – I
can’t remember the last time I looked at
someone’s education section on their CV,
we just look at experience.
I’m always interested in anything that
can address the balance between people
feeling like they are failures because they
haven’t gone to university and those that
have the applicable skills that they can
run with now. This is why my business
has taken on apprenticeships in the past
and will continue to do so in the future.
The year 9 pupils that Be the Change
work with are facing some challenging
times - often having difficulties at home
or at school - and this is something that
I want to help with. I didn’t have the
easiest of childhoods by any means;
my mum and dad didn’t have jobs, so
things were financially tight. I think there
is a perception held by some, that if you
are running a company then you must
have had an easy life beforehand, but
I definitely haven’t. Saying that, I have
had a couple of very lucky breaks and as
cliché as this sounds, I wanted to give
something back to the younger ones.
“It’s just about showing kids that there is
hope.”
The programme has been fantastic and
I’ve seen amazing progress with the
young adults. Both days spent at the
AMEX recently were phenomenal and
then the sessions that allowed us to
get involved at their schools was eye
opening. Graham, Carlo, Rose and the
team have set up an incredible initiative
where they really break down barriers with
young people and try to get them talking
to each other. The last event I attended,
for example, illustrated that, “you might
have had some difficult times, but you are
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