15th May 2023

Blueprint Employees Inspire Future Careers of Local Students

We are huge advocates of business and education partnerships, and our most recent initiative has been working with students from Lancaster Academy in Leicester. Following other recent visits, we welcomed 15 students and their teacher to WorkLife Central last week. This was for the final part of their R.E.A.D.Y programme where they gain experience in the world of work.

Our Chairman and Founder, Rob, is an Enterprise Adviser for Leicester & Leicestershire  Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) so has been heading up the initiative. As an Enterprise Adviser, Rob provides advice to the school about careers and works alongside LLEP’s team of Enterprise Coordinators to help young people prepare for the workplace.

A pioneering approach to building young peoples’ practical workplace skills

R.E.A.D.Y stands for Respect, Employability, Accountability, Diversity, and Young Ambassadors. Lancaster Academy believes that these five values are essential for success in the world of work and are committed to helping students develop in these areas. The school is pioneering in its approach, with one R.E.A.D.Y day every half term, devoted to focusing on career activities.

Many young people reach the working world without understanding how businesses operate and network. This is where this project comes in to provide workplace experiences before they even leave school.

Learning about the interior design and construction industries

The students had a full day of activities at Blueprint Interiors. They started by touring our office and learning about our company culture. They then met with members of our team from each department, including Projects, Design, Admin, Finance, and Sales. Our main aim was to provide plenty of opportunities for them to ask questions and learn more about the different roles that are available in the interior design and construction industries.

We believe the experience of coming to a real workplace is invaluable to young people when it comes to seeing what they might want to do with their future careers.

A chance for our team to share our passion

Everyone at Blueprint found it very refreshing to talk to the students, share our passions, and explain why we do what we do. Hopefully, we inspired some young minds along the way! It was brilliant to see the group’s creativity, problem-solving skills, and work ethic – and we’re confident they’ll be successful in whatever they choose to do in future.

A long-term partnership

As a team, we’ve been engaged in various activities to support Lancaster Academy’s young people to think about their future careers.

Rob, Francesca, and Muhammad attended the school’s Living Library event where 30-40 people from the world of work answered any questions students had about their industries. As well as our team representing interior design, there were fire engine crews, the air force, staff from the McVities factory and many others.

In October of last year, year 8 students, aged 12-13, had a R.E.A.D.Y day dedicated to design. They were given a project to convert a room at the school, and Rob and Muhammad returned to help in the classroom alongside the teacher.

The importance of understanding the options after school

Our Project Administrator Apprentice, Francesca, explained what the students asked our team about, and what it taught us too! “We were able to tell students about why we enjoy what we do and our opinion on further education. We explained to them the differences between sixth form and apprenticeships as we have both experienced them first-hand. I feel that apprenticeships should be spoken about more in school as they are far more valuable in regard to learning and gaining experience as that often makes you more employable in the future.

“We spoke to the students about salaries, studying part-time, our favourite thing about the business, what we enjoy and what we’ve learnt. This day was not only valuable to the students, but it is also valuable to us as it allowed us to build our confidence and communication skills.”

We feel very lucky to be involved in such an inspiring project and look forward to continuing our partnerships with Lancaster Academy and the LLEP.