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Programme

F4S [2020]

Talent and Skills

Impact for scaleups

1,600

Educators participating

31,000

Volunteers on the platform to choose from

800

Volunteers mentoring teachers and small businesses

395,107

Young people engaged with employers

1,291,131

Employer encounters to date

Key sectors

Impact ventures / Social Impact Life Sciences & Biotech Building & Construction Manufacturing / Advanced Manufacturing Creative, digital, film, games & media Professional services Defence & security Technology & Communications Engineering / Advanced Engineering Transport & Logistics Environmental Science & Technology Farming, fisheries & forestry Finance Food & drink Healthcare

F4S (formerly Founders4Schools) is an educational-tech charity giving children and young people the opportunity to meet the people who are creating the jobs of tomorrow in their classrooms today.

It works with volunteer business leaders drawn from startup and scaleup businesses and provides a simple free-to-use digital platform for educators to connect with local business leaders and professionals.

During the Covid-19 lockdown F4S introduced a webinar service, enabling encounters to take place at home and in more remote areas. This will be maintained to help connect students and business volunteers based in rural locations. A series of webinars for educators guided them through F4S’ online platform and provided advice on how to make the most out of the encounters for their students.

 

Promoting equal opportunities is a major focus and during 2020 F4S worked on a number of projects to achieve this, including with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to provide careers education to Somali students in the borough; Maths4Girls using role models to encourage more girls to develop and maintain an interest in STEM subjects and the Villiers Park Project that tackles the challenges faced by high ability students from less advantaged backgrounds.

2020 has also seen the evolution of services within the  F4S suite of support. These are:

  • Workfinder service to help young people search for work experience, including in  June 2020 the Mapper Project to support teachers navigate digital career goals.

  • Digital Boost, in partnership with BCG Digital Ventures, providing online tutorials and resources to teach digital skills and provide knowledge to help companies cope with online demands and continue to engage with their customers and stakeholders online.

F4S [2020] website