Dorset’s largest law firm, Lester Aldridge LLP, has renewed its sponsorship of Bournemouth School for Girls’ Young Chamber membership, giving the school continued access to the experience and expertise of 700+ business members across Dorset Chamber.
The OFSTED rated excellent school attended by 1100 students, including 300 in the Sixth Form, celebrates its centenary this year and is one of the country’s best performing state schools.
Young Chamber will continue to complement its activities by bringing business people from different working backgrounds and career paths into the classroom to engage students about their future working lives.
Alongside speaker events and activities with Chamber members, Young Chamber is seeking past alumnae of the school who would like to share their careers experiences since leaving Bournemouth School for Girls and re-engage with the school during its centenary year.
Matthew Barrow, Managing Partner at Lester Aldridge LLP, said: “We are actively involved with Dorset Chamber as a Platinum Business Partner therefore we are very familiar with the breadth and depth of experience across the membership. We not only support Young Chamber as an engagement tool for Bournemouth School for Girls to benefit from this experience, we are also delighted to be taking part in the programme by talking to other schools about the practice and business of law in other Young Chamber member schools.”
Head Teacher Alistair Brien said: “We have some very strong relationships with businesses, including Lester Aldridge LLP, which has kindly sponsored our Young Chamber membership for another year. We look forward to welcoming Dorset Chamber members to speak with our students and to the Young Chamber’s assistance with our careers and mock interview events, making them even more successful.”
Bournemouth School for Girls is hosting a Careers Fair in the Autumn term of 2018 with Bournemouth School and Talbot Heath School. The latter is a new Young Chamber member school, in the Autumn term of 2018.
Ian Girling, Chief Executive at Dorset Chamber said: “From September 2018 every state secondary school has to have a dedicated careers person in place to fulfil the Government’s Careers Strategy which, we are pleased to see, is focused on schools establishing links with businesses and giving ‘meaningful encounters’ with employers for every student.
“As Young Chamber is a non-public funded initiative, it is through the continued support of proactive companies like Lester Aldridge that we are able to provide a dedicated Coordinator to work with schools and businesses. We thank them and all our school and programme sponsors, including Bournemouth University and Daily Echo, for their continued investment in this very worthwhile initiative.”
The changes to careers engagement with businesses from September mean Dorset Chamber has seen an influx of enquiries in Young Chamber from schools seeking to join the existing 14 schools on the programme. Schools are recognising that a dedicated Young Chamber Coordinator is a resource which can play a key role in helping them to fulfil the Gatsby Benchmarks for employer engagement, set by the Government.
Businesses wishing to know more about sponsorship or being part of the Young Chamber delivery programme can contact joan.senior@dccic.co.uk or find out more:
Online: https://dorsetchamber.co.uk/young-chamber/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/YoungChamber123
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/young-chamber-dorset/