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It has now been eight months since we launched the Work Inspiration campaign and I wanted to give you an update on the impact the campaign is having across the country.
I have no doubt that without your support and commitment the campaign would certainly not have had the success and impetus that has been achieved so far.
As you may know, through sign-ups and Big Conversation events, our aspiration has always been to influence 100,000 placements across the UK. To date we have 505 organisations engaged and supporting the campaign and, to date, have influenced over 35,500 placements through our work with partners, champions and events.
The Big Conversation events continue to have a huge impact across the country with events having already taken place in London, Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Solihull and EBP’s running ones in Portsmouth and two in Cheshire.
It doesn't stop there!!
Eleven future events are planned, also including Northern Ireland, Birmingham, Suffolk, Wales, Norfolk and the Black Country, with a planned event by Solent EBP. So successful are the events that we now have sector events that include the sports, media, hotels, construction, professional services and rural and agricultural industries. To date, according to our numbers, the Big Conversation events have reached over 2,500 business organisations, young people, government bodies and EBPS.
As momentum grows so does the campaign, we have a number of innovations that are currently being developed.
These include:
A fourth Insight that is currently under development with BT, EDF and Addison Lee As a result of the Leeds event, a new regional Award will recognise the best company practice in the regions – managed, judged and presented by young people BT’s is introducing a federated model that will extend placement opportunities amongst, SMEs, its suppliers and partner organisations Royal Mail and BT have both piloted how to best support young people coming out of the care system We are leveraging EBPs employer networks to extend the reach of the campaign A Work Inspiration school pilot in Manchester is under development
Work Inspiration is being supported by a robust media campaign. Successful media partnerships have been established nationally and regionally. To date, The Telegraph, Sunday Times, Manchester Evening News and Yorkshire Post have been supportive and generous in their coverage. Each Big Conversation is being supported by a separate media strategy and we have had good pick up and coverage at each event. But, we could not have achieved the coverage we have had if it were not for the collaboration and mentions in corporate announcements from organisations such as Marks & Spencer, Boots, McDonald’s and Eden. Through partner announcements, Big Conversations and proactive PR we have reached over 30 million people.
We are actively working with The Employer Task Force through the Work Experience Committee convened as a result of the campaign to pass recommendations gathered from events and supporters.
Lastly, we have a number of exciting initiatives taking place over the next few months, two regional Big Conversations, a sector Big Conversation (Media and Creative industries) run by ITV and Chime. We celebrate the Work Inspiration Regional awards in June and look forward to work experience week in July. Finally, we are planning our 15 September 2010 activity and media strategy - more information on this will follow soon.
Once again, thank you for your support.
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