Bournemouth Multi-Academy Trust is Inspiring Students' Future

Students at a Bournemouth multi-academy trust can look forward to an inspirational future thanks to a new career programme. Avonbourne Trust has employed a dedicated, full-time head of careers and employability to spearhead its Inspirational Futures (IF) initiative.

This scheme, which will prepare students aged from five up to 18 for the world of work, was launched at a special careers’ fair the Trust hosted for all its students. Pupils from the Trust’s four academies – Avonwood Primary, Avonbourne College, Harewood College and Avonbourne Sixth Form – spent the day speaking to a wide-range of local employers, colleges and universities.

Pippa Allner, Avonbourne’s new head of careers and employability, said: “Our Inspirational Futures department offers students an energetic and motivating approach to their career ambitions and this is embedded across the curriculum.

“We provide careers information, advice and guidance, work-related learning, work experience, entrepreneurship and personal development. “Our support spans across all colleges in the Trust. We believe that inspiring our students from a young age enables them to become better prepared for their future career decisions.” ‘IF’ is the latest development introduced by Avonbourne, once dubbed the most enterprising college in England, to ensure its students are work-ready.

Avonbourne was the first Trust in Dorset to be awarded the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole (BDP) Employment and Education Charter and the first in southern England to become a Peter Jones Foundation School. It is seven times winner of the national Tenner Tycoon competition, which challenges students to use entrepreneurial skills to turn £10 into hundreds of pounds, and has also won top prize in Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones’ Tycoon in Schools competition.

Avonbourne Trust CEO, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, said: “As a business and enterprise trust our unique ethos has always been about preparing all our students for their next steps in education and ultimately the world of work. “In Pippa we have someone with more than a decade’s experience of working in the careers and education sector supporting and inspiring our students for what lies ahead of them. “The government has recently announced a new strategy for careers education in schools but here at Avonbourne this has always been at the forefront of what we offer.”

Avonbourne Trust works in partnership with a range of employers and education establishments, including banking giant JP Morgan, Bournemouth University and national insurance firm LV=. It also designed and is now the lead member of the Europe-wide Erasmus+ research programme aimed at developing employability and entrepreneurship skills in young people so they can work anywhere in the world.