NTMY Impact Report: Access Aspiration & Mayor’s Fund for London

Since September 2020 NTMY became the main supporter of Access Aspiration (“AA”), a programme run by the Mayor’s Fund for London aimed at creating more visibility of employment pathways for 16-18 year olds by providing aspirational work placements and employer insights.

Access Aspiration’s key objective is to combat underrepresentation in the labour market, especially for young people from low income or Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, as young people without professional networks and other social capital are often unable to get a first foot in the door when it comes to accessing careers.

AA targets schools and students specifically to support those who most need connecting to employers (33 of the schools targeted for having a high proportion of students eligible for Free School Meals), by bringing industry role models from diverse backgrounds into schools to raise awareness of opportunities, increase engagement between industry employers and schools/ colleges in underserved geographies to build employability skills, investing in recruitment pathways, etc.

Impact highlights:

• Over 2,600 students registered from state schools across London
• Over 75% of students from BAME backgrounds
• More than 1,200 meaningful student encounters since September
• 89% of students reported an increased knowledge of career options; 79% improved motivation and 77% increased confidence
• Digital learning increases to meet demand from students (now twice weekly), to further help them reflect on and to re-enforce the learning from the videos. So far there have been over 1,200 students participating in digital career sessions

Positive feedback seen from students 

Student feedback was gathered to better understand the outcome of the programme’s work on students.

199 students who completed a feedback survey on Access Aspirations career sessions from December to February; 89% reported increased knowledge of their career options, 77% reported increased confidence and 79% improved motivation.

“It was extremely helpful in giving me an insight in how to successfully achieve a good impression in CV and Interview skills.” 

“I liked how we were able to hear from different roles in the company and I loved that we got to speak to the CEO.”

Access Aspiration continues its support for young people, since November another 345 sixth form students (aged 16-18) have registered with AA. A full list of connected businesses can be found here.