Unloc & Verizon Business scoop impressive awards at the Better Society Awards 2024
13 June 2024
We’re thrilled to reveal that we and Verizon Business won two awards at The Better Society Awards 2024!
What a fantastic term it’s been! Since the start of September the Accelerate Programme has been in full swing, delivering a series of amazing workshops and inspiring sessions to over 260 young people in 6 different schools across Portsmouth and the surrounding areas.
This unique and exciting new programme was designed in partnership between Unloc and The City of Portsmouth College to explore young people’s aspirations, develop their employability and enterprise skills, and explore college life through a series of fun, interactive workshops!
Each workshop focused on one of the E6 principles, an initiative set up by the college to offer enrichment opportunities for students to prepare for the working world.
The students have worked so hard and really engaged with the programme this time, so what better way to end the current round of the Accelerate programme than with a graduation event to celebrate all their efforts! on Thursday 8th December at City Of Portsmouth College, Highbury Campus.
Students who completed the programme, along with their parents and guardians, braved the freezing conditions to join us and The City Of Portsmouth College at the College’s Highbury Campus on the 8th December to celebrate their hard work and be awarded their certificates.
The Unloc team were honoured to be joined by David Byford: Director for Business Engagement, Apprenticeships and Partnerships, Dan Franklin: Manager of School liaison and Councillor Suzy Horton, Portsmouth City Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families.
Suzy delivered an inspiring speech to the pupils regarding the possibilities she seized throughout her education and career to get to her position within the local government administration.
After the certificate ceremony, the pupils were faced with one final Accelerate challenge provided by Uniformed Protective Services which involved making a chair from only balloons and sticky tape!
All the guests then enjoyed a fun evening of food, donuts, pic ’n’ mix candies, prizes and a photo-booth (which of course our wonderful Unloc facilitators needed to sample!).
It was an electric evening and the perfect way to end what has been such a brilliant new programme to add to the Unloc portfolio. Working closely with the college to develop such a bespoke programme for the students has been so fulfilling as we’ve watched them grow and develop, and we look forward to bringing Accelerate to more students in the new year.
As always we like to collect feedback from the young people we work with, so here are just a few of the comments that we collected on the night!
“I really enjoyed the Accelerate programme as I learnt new skills like debating. I really struggle with public speaking and this programme has really helped.”
Accelerate Programme Graduate
“Doing this course has taught me that there are so many options and skills out in the world that we don’t know until we actually try to achieve them.”
Accelerate Programme Graduate
“Just a quick note to thank you for running the Accelerate programme and graduation. [My young person] really enjoyed both parts of the programme, and I was very impressed with the graduation ceremony. Thank you for all you do for our young people.”
Graduation attendee
We’ll be begining a new round of the Accelerate programme in 2023, so keep an eye on our News page right here on the Unloc website, as well as on our social media channels to keep up to date!
You can also subscribe to our free Unloc Digital Update by clicking here!
We are very excited to launch our exciting new programme for young people: Inspiring Change: Young people tackling Youth Violence, together! An 8 month experience for young people aged 15-19 living in Portsmouth, Southampton, Eastleigh or Totton.
This free initiative is part of the Peer Action Collective and in partnership with Artswork and Youth Options, and will see young people take the lead in tackling youth violence in their local communities through social action projects or awareness campaigns.
There is also the chance for young people to apply for funding of between £1000 and £3000 to support their project they design and plan.
The programme will be delivered from April-December 2022 and will consist of 4 immersive weekends including a 1 night residential, monthly check-ins, employability workshops, and fun, interactive sessions to allow young people to make an impact!
Inspiring Change will allow young people of all backgrounds to develop their project management skills as well as make a positive impact in their local communities.
Youth Violence & Social Action Manager, Katie Aris, said:
“This is a really exciting project and a unique opportunity for young people to make a positive impact in their communities and in the world around them. Youth violence is a problem in many areas, towns and cities around the UK. This programme will allow the energy, ideas and passion these young people possess to make a real difference, and will support the national efforts in tackling youth violence around the country.”
The programme is part of a wider project in collaboration with Artswork and Youth Options which has seen 12 young people employed as peer researchers since September. They are conducting research around the impacts of youth violence in order to support the social action projects.
Youth Violence & Social Action Facilitator, Jess Cowling, said:
“We are really lucky and excited to have the opportunity to support young people in tackling youth violence as part of our Inspiring Change Programme and supporting them to become changemakers in their own right!”
The deadline for applications for the Inspiring Change programme is the 25th March, and applications are already coming in thick and fast. If you or someone you know is interested in signing up then be sure to do so quickly!
For more information or to apply, please click here!
We’d like to give special thanks to the Youth Endowment fund alongside the Co-op and the #iwill Fund for their support and funding for this exciting new project.
About Unloc
Unloc is a leading education non profit founded in 2013 by award-winning young leaders and advocates Hayden Taylor and Ben Dowling. We help schools, colleges and organisations inspire and empower young people to be changemakers through bespoke and innovative programmes in entrepreneurship, leadership, career pathways and student voice. We work towards our mission by delivering inspiring educational programmes in our growing network of schools and colleges.
Our mission is to empower young people to be innovative changemakers who seek to build stronger communities and sustainable businesses. We develop young people’s skills, enhance their potential and boost their determination to succeed.
Sign up for Unloc’s monthly Digital Update straight to your inbox by clicking here!
About Artswork
Artswork has empowered children and young people through arts and culture for the last 30 years. A national voice celebrating the arts, creativity and cultural development for, with and by young people, they are committed to improving their life chances and making a difference.
Artswork strive to make the arts and creativity available to absolutely everyone. Aiming to break through barriers and develop new ways for people to discover the success, empowerment and sheer joy that the arts and creativity can bring to classrooms, communities and careers.
For more information about Artswork click here!
About Youth Options
Youth Options was established in 1937. They believe that every child and young person has the potential to realise their abilities and aspirations, and to make a valuable contribution to their communities. They are committed to supporting young people to develop their social and emotional skills, engage with learning and to stay safe. Youth Options services are individually tailored to deliver vibrant, dynamic and ever-evolving opportunities that connect with and inspire young people.
About 20 per cent of Youth Options services are open access for all young people, whilst 80 per cent are targeted projects delivered to young people with specific needs. They work with young people in a wide range of situations, including those in care, care leavers, those at risk of exclusion from school or society, those already excluded from mainstream education and young people who are NEET or likely to be NEET on leaving school.
For more information about Youth Options click here!
As a new term begins there’s never been a better time to encourage the young people at your school or college to be their own boss one day, and empower them to become young entrepreneurs.
As the world, and technology changes, the job market will rapidly alter within the next decade. Providing young people with the confidence, ideas and passion to think for themselves and shape their own future is the best gift we can give them.
Our Enterprise Short Course is a practical, creative and structured programme that develops the entrepreneurial mindset and skills of young people.
Our programme is built by former young entrepreneurs and experts, recognising the important lessons and journey they made, and is targeted towards different age groups and level levels.
Available in a variety of formats including 12 week courses or 2-4 day bootcamps depending on your requirements, young people on the programme will explore the key skills and knowledge associated with starting a business, with learning geared towards creating their very own businesses, projects or charity concepts.
They’ll use their creativity and logical thinking to come up with an idea for their own business, then think through how that would logistically work, how it would run, who their customers would be, how they would market it, and how they would make a profit.
By the end of the inspiring programme our ‘apprentice’ participants will have:
In order to graduate the programme and receive Unloc’s employer-backed completion certificate, each young person will present their concepts to a panel of school/college and Unloc facilitators.
These will include:
Whether your students need to develop their confidence and employability, or they’ve proactively decided that self-employment is the route for them, the Unloc Enterprise Short Course will provide an inspiring and insightful personal development journey for all.
Could your students or young people be empowered by our Enterprise Short Course?
Get in touch by giving us a call for an informal chat on 02394 008 180.
Or click the ‘Get in touch’ button above. You can also fill out our simple to use webform by clicking here and we’ll come back to you.
There’s no commitment and we’re always happy to talk and see how we can best meet your needs.
We’re thrilled to reveal that we and Verizon Business won two awards at The Better Society Awards 2024!
Last Thursday industry professionals from across the country gathered at Verizon’s slick London Hub in at MidCity Place, Holborn, for a Changemaker Moments event on Manufacturing.
During the February half-term and Easter holidays this year, 53 young people, in Year 11 and 12, from across Portsmouth participated in our ‘Portsmouth Inspires’ Programme, funded by NCS.
. We’re looking for a passionate & creative young person aged 16-25 in the Portsmouth or London areas to become our first official social media
We’re thrilled to reveal that we and Verizon Business won two awards at The Better Society Awards 2024!
Last Thursday industry professionals from across the country gathered at Verizon’s slick London Hub in at MidCity Place, Holborn, for a Changemaker Moments event on Manufacturing.
During the February half-term and Easter holidays this year, 53 young people, in Year 11 and 12, from across Portsmouth participated in our ‘Portsmouth Inspires’ Programme, funded by NCS.
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