When the summer holidays finally arrive, the team at Ahead Partnership takes a huge sigh before the business of reflecting on the past school year begins. For me, that means analysing the impact of our work, especially on Growing Talent Digital Leeds, our longest running Growing Talent programme.
If you haven’t heard of it, Growing Talent Digital Leeds is an award-winning annual programme of interactive activities led and funded by some of the city’s top employers, that help young people understand that digital skills will help them access exciting and rewarding careers.
This year has seen our long-term anchor partners Aire Logic, Accenture, AND Digital, BJSS, Leeds Trinity University and Netcompany devote more time and effort than ever with a massive 223 volunteers taking part in the programme, supported by our huge network of businesses and friends. We have been joined this year by supporter sponsors Audacia and KPMG, and held our biggest ever Girl Tech Leeds event attend by more than 260 guests, including 160 year 8 girls from schools around Leeds.
When we ask young people who their role models are, there are a fair share of answers naming footballers and YouTubers I’ve never heard of, but the most common answer we get is a parent/carer or family member, which is wonderful. But, if you live in one of the most deprived wards of the city, chances are that your parent or family members are not employed in the digital sector, so who do you go to when you have questions?