SCHOOLS AND YOUTH GROUPS

Through our GirlsCan project, we offer workshops and comprehensive development programmes delivered in schools or community settings. We turn the the advice model on its head and support girls to develop skills to make their own choices.

The aim is for girls to really experience the skills being taught and discussed, and witness how others have used these skills and managed their life choices. To that end, we use coaching, role play and draw on learning from the experience of the group and the GirlsCan network. Girls not only look at their own needs and choices, they also develop skills in communication, collaboration and leadership.

Read more below about our Inspire Workshops and Aspire Programme.

The Inspire Workshops

Inspire workshops are for girls and young women ages 14 to 18. These interactive workshops help girls explore what they want from their futures and how to make positive choices that are right for them.

Ignite's facilitators are positive female role models from different backgrounds and with different careers. The girls hear how these inspiring women have navigated their careers and their experience of making important life choices. The girls then use Ignite's Your Choice workbook to explore what they want for their futures. Through the group discussions and end of workshop presentations, they learn about key employability skills such as communication, collaboration and professionalism.

What the girls say:

 ‘Inspiration is the key! Because I feel more confident about my career path/paths’

‘When the [facilitators] were speaking about the past experiences and how they overcame many tough difficulties but still didn't give up. I loved it because it inspired me not to give up in the career paths and obstacles I face in the future.’

Logistics: We deliver in schools or youth work settings. In schools we can deliver to a full year group by bringing in a number of pairs of facilitators and delivering several workshops at once. These workshops can also be used as introduction to the Aspire programme which the girls can sign up for as an after school option, or an option in 6th form.

For more details and booking information email kathleen@ignite-leadership.org.

The Aspire to Achieve Programme

This programme is for young women aged 16+ and can be delivered in a youth work, college or school settings. We deliver with a ratio of one facilitator to eight or ten young women depending on the needs of the girls. The programme is adapted according to the age group, therefore we tend to work with groups of the same age, or close in age.

The programme takes place over eight sessions of one and a half hours. The young women learn to develop personal leadership skills to enable them to make positive choices about their futures and live with confidence. Through the programme a young woman will:

• Understand her strengths and how to build on them and how to communicate these strengths when applying for work or training and in interviews.
• Understand her own personal values; know what is important to her and how that affects how she interacts with others.
• Understand what it means to be her authentic self and make choices that are right for her.
• Learn about the world of work and specific issues relating to women such as the pay gap, and learn how others have navigated these issues and the personal leadership skills they used.
• Learn about key employability and leadership skills and practice these through activities with the group.
• Explore the choices and options available to her.
• Develop an action plan, broken down into small, measurable goals.
• Using everything she has learned, she will apply this to writing material for a CV, supporting statement and/or application.

What the young women say:

I now have a clearer focus, and know what I need to start doing now in order to do what I want to do in the future.

I am more confident when I look to the future and know what opportunities are available to me.

It helps me to know what to look for in searching for a job. It has helped me to identify my strengths and values which I can write on my personal statement for the future. Being able to confidently talk about myself will help me in the future when I apply for university and jobs.

The chance to have a closer look at what I will be doing in the future, especially at a time when most of my time had to be focussed on exams. I also enjoyed the opportunity given to me to talk to someone from one of the professions I was interested in. I enjoyed discovering strengths of mine that I had not previously acknowledged. Realising my goals in life.

For schools: The programmes meet the requirements of the Careers Education Framework, as well as the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) Framework, and builds on the skills developed through SEAL.

For more details and booking information email kathleen@ignite-leadership.org.

Bespoke Offerings for Young Women

Ignite can provide all the service we offer for courses for individuals within an organisation for an existing group of young women. We can also provide bespoke courses and consultancy for young women.

For example, we have delivered confidence building workshops for young women in the National Union of Students and Project Management training for Elevation Enterprise's Visible Women Campaign.

For more information and for a chat on what we have to offer please contact Kathleen at kathleen@ignite-leadership.org

GirlsCan Website

We have launched our GirlsCan.co.uk website providing girls with inspiring real world role models.

Could you share your story with GirlsCan? We are looking for women of all ages, from young women just starting out to women at the top of their game and everyone in between.

We want the good with the bad so girls can learn from others how to deal with setbacks and barriers as well as successes.