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Starting early in primary schools is key to employer education outreach.

At PwC, our work in primary schools is an important part and extension of our long-standing commitment to working with the education sector to help young people develop skills and see what the work place of today is all about.听

Our Social Mobility Schools programme offers students the opportunity to develop their confidence and key employability skills through an approach that blends face-to-face and virtual activities, allowing us to reach more young people across a wider geographical reach.听

Helping to boost social mobility is key to how we support our local communities too. Through our school鈥媠鈥� outreach, we aim to reach the most disadvantaged areas, remove barriers to access and equip young people with the skills they need to help them fulfil their potential and achieve positive employment outcomes in their careers of choice.听

Why did we get involved in primary听

There is an increasing body of research which highlights the importance of 鈥渟tarting early鈥� with career-related learning and engaging with primary aged children.鈥疭o in 2023, we launched a pilot programme, delivering 鈥媝rimary 鈥�schools outreach鈥嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌�, with a view to expand our reach and impact.听听

The Careers and 黑料吃瓜网 Company鈥檚 (CEC) Start Small; Dream Big pilot is very aligned with what we are aiming to achieve with our own outreach programme.听听

When we heard The CEC was looking for employers to deliver encounters for primary schools, we thought it would be a great opportunity to develop our programme, engage with more students in a systematic way and begin to develop relationships in the primary space. We were able to define our involvement and what we were able to offer.鈥�听

The purpose of our primary sessions is to excite and inspire children about the world of work and their future careers.鈥�听

鈥�鈥嬧赌�What have we done so far听

Our work with primary pupils in Wave 1 of the Primary Pilot focused on disadvantaged communities in three areas of the country 鈥� Cornwall, Cambridge and Newcastle.听

In Cornwall, all our activity was targeted at Year 5 and 6 and involved running three virtual insight days reaching over 140 children.听听

The sessions focused on key skills like listening, speaking and teamwork, showing the children how they were relevant and important to the different sorts of jobs people do. They also showed how what they are learning in the classroom in different lessons was connected to developing the skills they would need 鈥媔n the workplace鈥�鈥�.

The feedback we had from the sessions was very positive with one teacher saying: 鈥淭he children enjoyed the session and were buzzing to feedback to others about what they had been doing and had learnt.鈥�听

In Cambridge and Newcastle we delivered two in person insight days in our offices for 鈥�54 鈥�鈥媃ear 6 children. 鈥�鈥嬏�听听听 鈥�听

For many of these children it was their first experience of seeing what an office is like, meeting people who work in that environment, hearing about the wide range of different jobs people do and seeing them in action.听

In our experience, the 鈥媜蹿蹿颈肠别鈥�鈥� 鈥�visits are a powerful way of giving children a clear line of sight into the sorts of jobs people do and helping them picture themselves in those roles.听

The feedback from the teachers helped reinforce to us how important and influential these 鈥榮how and tell鈥� moments can be for children, even at a young age.听

鈥淭he budgeting activity at the end of the day was really purposeful and linked well to the curriculum we teach in school. It also related learning to the real world.鈥濃��听

鈥淔inding out about job roles and the tour of the office definitely had the most impact on the pupils.鈥�听

Our future plans听

Our experience of the CEC鈥檚 primary programme, Start Small; Dream Big has been very positive. CEC鈥檚 Careers Hubs have made it much easier for us as an employer to make meaningful connections with the primary schools in their patch and the schools we worked with have been very engaged in the programme.听

It has also enabled us 鈥媡o expand鈥� our geographic reach and tap into an existing network to help develop our programme further.听

We will be continuing to work with the programme as the pilot rolls out further across the country and build on our mix of in person and virtual insight sessions for primary pupils.听听

Through our engagement in Wave 2 of the Primary Pilot we鈥檝e expanded to 11 locations. Five face to face programmes in鈥疊ristol, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds and Southampton and six virtual in鈥疌ornwall, Plymouth, Dorset, New Anglia, East Sussex and Somerset, totalling 546 primary students鈥痜rom years 4 鈥� 6.听

What the Start Small; Dream Big pilot has demonstrated to us are the real benefits of starting early when it comes to education engagement and the enormous impact such 鈥媤辞谤办辫濒补肠别鈥� experiences can have on young people鈥� from lower socio-economic backgrounds鈥�, opening their eyes to opportunity and helping them see the possibilities for their potential beyond school.