hello@futuresadvice.org
Futures
57 Maid Marian Way
Nottingham
NG1 6GE
19th December, 2024
Reading time: Two minutes
It’s that time of year again – where our bodies might be winding down for a well-deserved winter break, but our minds are whirring with thoughts about what the year ahead might bring.
We won’t deny that we’re big fans of looking to the future (the clue is in our name...), but we also like to take some time to shine a light on the past. Before the year puts its feet up to rest, we’re taking a look back at just some of the achievements and adventures we’ve had in 2024.
We started the year on a high, celebrating our success in helping thousands of people in our local areas achieve their goals and begin living their dreams throughout 2023. Whether it was getting into a new job, starting a straining course, or helping young people in our communities find their feet after finishing school.
We also had our first Together Conference of the year – a time where all our staff can come together to celebrate successes and take part in well-being activities and CPD training.
January saw us welcome Janine Walker to the Futures team as our Head of Targeted Support – she jumped straight in, working on the launch of the Transform Your Future contract, and she’s been a fantastic member of the team ever since.
In February, we received the evaluation of the Unlocking Potential Hub programme, and were delighted to learn that with the support of Futures and our partners, over 10,000 young people across D2N2 were given the opportunity to learn about the world of work and gain hands on experience.
Our Skills team were hard at work launching a number of online courses to help customers develop their skills – particularly in the Health and Social Care sector. New courses such as Understanding Specific Learning Disabilities, Understanding Autism, and Principles of Dementia Care, as well as many more, became available for our customers to enroll onto.
At the start of Spring, we celebrated National Careers Week, with plenty of our own careers advisers getting involved. Bobbie and Mahalia shared advice on our social channels, while Priyesh and Gugulethu reflected on their own career journeys.
We hosted our own Learner Engagement Event at Nottingham’s Albert Hall, where all of our services came together under one roof to support local people. The event was a great success – with over 100 attendees coming to see what we could offer.
We were delighted to share that for the second year running, our Gender Pay Gap report showed a medium pay gap of zero, compared to the national average of 14.4%. We want all our employees to feel valued at work, and ensuring equal pay is just one piece of that puzzle.
We debuted our new Golden Thread video – following the Futures journey from 1995 through to today. Can you believe we turn 30 next year?!
In May, we published the Careers Happiness Index – an in-depth look into which careers come with the highest satisfaction rates. We asked our customers – does your job make you happy? And if the answer was no, we helped them take the necessary steps from employment to enjoyment. Want to know what the happiest industry really is? Take a look.
In June, some brave National Careers Service advisers from across our areas volunteered themselves to receive media training, where they learned all about how to give radio and TV interviews. You’ll see a couple of them put their skills to good use later in the year...
With summer in full swing, we had time to gather for the second Together Conference, where we enjoyed talks from Futures staff and board members on Neurodivergence awareness and Long Covid awareness.
We also welcomed Skills to Success to our Mansfield services – supporting customers who are looking to find employment in Mansfield. Celebrations were in order for our incredible Ask Us Nottinghamshire team who deliver the IASS service, which provides information, advice and support to children and young people with special education needs and disabilities in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. A review of the service revealed that 100% of customers were happy with the support they received, and that 100% of targets were being achieved (with some targets being achieved at not just 100%, but 300% and 400%!)
August was a month for celebrations, as we achieved both a Matrix accreditation for the standard of our Information, Advice and Guidance, and a certification for our transition to ISO 27001:2022, which shows our commitment to providing information security to our customers.
This month also saw one of our own advisers, Clare Golley, score a feature in the BBC, giving advice to students about their next steps on results day.
September saw the long-awaited reveal of our new brand! We might have a new look, but we’re the same Futures who are here to help. The new brand came with a new name, new social media channels, a new website and a fresh lick of paint for our Nottingham and Mansfield centres.
In October we prepared to be the hosts with the most, as we welcomed Lilian Greenwood to our Nottingham centre and Richard Bulter to our Mansfield hub. It’s always fantastic to be able to show local MPs the positive impact we have on our communities.
Our advisers continued to support young people following results day, with Paul Mitchell taking a seat on the Future You podcast to share insights and advice about how to choose what to do with your life. You can watch his full interview here.
We were honoured to be named as finalists for the Excellence in Collaboration Award by the East Midlands Chamber.
And as the month came to an end we asked our customers the age-old question – classrooms or computers? Is it better for people to learn online or in-person? If you want to hear the answer, you can read all about it here.
Our work on Transform Your Future continued to grow as we expanded the service and began delivering support in Erewash.
And from dressing up as ghosts for Halloween to sharing behind the scenes shots from our Jobs Clubs with sparklers, our social channels are putting our people front and centre. We wanted our social channels to show the true faces of Futures, and we’re thrilled to see so many of our staff members stepping up to the camera. If you’re not already, make sure you’re following us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
It’s almost Christmas! We’ve enjoyed festive boxes of treats at our virtual fuddle and our Christmas trees are up and shining brightly. A total of £122 was raised for Christmas Jumper Day. We’re ready for some well-deserved time off and we’re already looking forward to seeing what 2025 will bring.
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hello@futuresadvice.org
Futures
57 Maid Marian Way
Nottingham
NG1 6GE