Future Stars Programme

Future Stars, an employability and life skills programme created by Starbucks, was developed by Business in the Community for delivery to Secondary school students in years 9 and 10. 

It is a two day course, consisting of a variety of different workshops aimed at introducing/improving skills in presentations, communication and teamwork, as well as raising student confidence and aspirations. In addition, the programme guides students to think more clearly about the choices that they will have to make upon attempting to enter the world of work and aims to equip them with the necessary language, knowledge and understanding they will need to succeed.

The programme can be delivered in the work place or in school, and is facilitated by trained employee volunteers, who guide the students through a series of real life examples and scenarios to provide perspective and understanding of a wide range of employability skills which are of such importance in the workplace.

The key objectives for the two days is to break down barriers and open up the work place to allow students to learn and develop new skills to make them ready for work. At the end of the second day, they will have observed and taken part in a “mock interview” session, during which they will have the opportunity put their new skills into practice.

Whilst the major focus of Future Stars pilot was on improving access to the work place for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic students (BAME), the programme also focused on providing positive role models and highlighting successful minority ethnic workers in the host businesses. Many of the 13-15 year olds in the schools that participated have little concept of employers’ expectations and few have role models to look to for advice and guidance.

Over two years the Birmingham pilot featured 135 employee volunteers from: McDonalds, Pertemps, Yorkshire Bank, HMRC, Royal Mail, KPMG, the West Midlands police, AF Blakemore, Hadley Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Morrisons Facilities Services, Signet, PwC, GF Tomlinson, Cleone Foods, Willis Insurance, Jaguar Land Rover and Thomas Vale Construction , who worked with 295 students from 7 schools.

How has the programme benefited the students?

Student feedback on day one shows the programme increases student confidence as while 69% admitted that they were only “a little” confident about their knowledge of the world of work before the start of the programme, at the end of day one 78% said that the sessions had made them feel more confident about the world of work.

 “I have learnt about what some jobs are looking for in terms of skills like confidence, leadership skills and IT Skills” Student, Day 1

Students learnt how to prepare for interviews and about the importance of first impressions, communication skills and thorough preparation. The mock interview sessions gave students the opportunity to experience the interview process and the chance to understand how a well written CV can contribute to a favourable interview experience. At the end of the second day, 100% of students agreed they would feel more confident applying for a job.

It was felt by teachers and volunteers that the students left the two-day session with an understanding of what is expected of them and what the companies are looking for. Prior to the session some students did not even know what a CV was. This experience gave them the opportunity to reflect on their own skills and most importantly understand how to make those skills relevant to specific job requirements.

In Year two of the pilot, student participation in the Future Stars workshops was followed by a Behind the Scenes visit to local companies to broaden the students' perceptions of the world of work and to inspire their future career choices.

100% of teachers felt the Behind the Scenes visit had raised their students’ aspirations and confidence.

Some other key lessons mentioned by students were:

“I learnt what type of skills that are needed for different types of jobs and how some jobs have different things to do every day.”

“To stay determined to reach a high standard.”

“That engineering is a possible career for girls.”

“How people should behave in a job.”

“Insurance is hard work, but insurance can be exciting.”

One of the students that said he did not know any adults with jobs that he looked up to said that he now understood “there are lots of different jobs available.” Another student that said he did not have working role models said that he learnt “how to apply for a job and that education doesn’t stop when you leave school.”

How has the programme benefited the employee volunteers?

The employee volunteers reported they were comfortable delivering the sessions and found that it helped them develop skills they could apply in the workplace, such as coaching skills, team working and stress management, while giving them a sense of achievement.

“We are in every community across the UK and see this as an opportunity to reach out as a business. In terms of recruitment, they are always looking for extra workers and we see it as very important for us to source staff locally and understand that we need to develop relationships as potential future employees.”

“From a personal POV it is important to work with different groups and understand that not everyone is the same and not everyone has the chance that we have had.”

“We have an apprentice scheme, which could be a great way for the students that we worked with, to get into the world of work. See this as an opportunity to develop these students and give them some direction.”

In agreement with the teachers’ feedback, 100% of employees felt the Behind the Scenes visit had raised students’ aspirations and confidence, reporting that they had developed their own skills, in particular communication, time management, presentation skills and team building.

“I got involved because I thought it could really add value to the school children and their understanding of the world of work and secondly I thought it would provide an opportunity for me to develop some of my skills. It was a double benefit for me. I think it has really benefited me and now when I am speaking to people I think my approach is more considered, I take more time with it and think about what they want to get out of it and that is probably a lot to do with the volunteering.”

“The one thing they got a lot out of was coming to the office, because they could actually see what the world of work was like.”
 

After the success of the pilot, the Future Stars programme will likely be followed by a national roll out.

The Year 1 and Year 2 reports on the Future Stars programme are both now available:

• The Futures Stars Report - Year 1 (766 kb)
• The Futures Stars Report - Year 2 (478 kb)