People & Skills Projects - 12 December 2019

Event held to encourage creative employers to engage with local schools

Creative Industries employers have heard from skills professionals how they can encourage young people into their sector at a business breakfast event held in Nottingham.

D2N2, alongside the Creative Industries Federation, hosted the event aimed at companies working in the Creative Industries sectors in the D2N2 region, who are concerned about skills shortages within their sector.

Delegates were encouraged to begin engaging with local schools through the D2N2 Enterprise Adviser Network to promote their industry and the career paths within it.

Employers can even support schools on a strategic level to improve the information that young people receive about the world of work by becoming an Enterprise Adviser.

Enterprise Advisers are volunteers from businesses who work closely with the headteacher or Senior Leadership Team of a school or college to provide strategic support.

Advisers use their business experience and professional networks to help put opportunities with creative employers at the heart of a young person’s education.

D2N2 Enterprise Advisers

CEO of Ideagen and D2N2 Enterprise Adviser Ben Dorks was one of the speakers at the event, telling delegates: “Two years ago an IT teacher told me that they’d actually stopped offering IT as a GCSE course as nobody wanted to do it. That’s what made me decide to get involved.”

“The reality is that when I saw one person apply and get a job with us from the school we work with I thought, yes we’ve made a difference.”

“What we’re doing is giving aspiration and hope to a whole generation. We are making a difference.”

Other speakers included Catherine Mayhew from the Creative Quarter and Andy Afford from the Young Creatives Award.

D2N2 Enterprise Coordinator Caroline Tomlinson who helped organise the event said: “It was great to see that local creative businesses are keen to engage with schools and to find out more about how they can work with schools through the Enterprise Adviser Network.”

“The creative industries offer so many excellent career options and yet are often overlooked as potential career paths by young people, simply due to a lack of understanding of the wealth of opportunity within the sector.”

D2N2 Enterprise Adviser Network

D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, in partnership with the Careers & Enterprise Company, operates the Enterprise Adviser Network, designed to help businesses interact with schools and linking enterprise advisers to education providers.

To date the Enterprise Coordinators have engaged with 128 schools across the region, helping schools form their careers strategy and take part in careers-focused activities for students.

Media wanting more information about the D2N2 LEP can contact Luke Stott, D2N2 Digital Marketing Officer, on 0115 9578749 or email: Luke.Stott@d2n2lep.org

Latest News & Events

19 July 2024

Local business support boosted with launch of Early Stage Angel Investment Fund

Read Article

21 June 2024

Spotlight on our Board: Scott Knowles, Chief Executive, East Midlands Chamber, on the D2N2 LEP transition and East Midlands devolution

Read Article

11 June 2024

The D2N2 LEP staff team joins the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA)

Read Article

07 June 2024

Becky Rix, Marketing Director at Roadgas, explains why Roadgas is a proud member of the East Midlands Hydrogen Consortium

Read Article

05 June 2024

Spotlight on our Board: D2N2 LEP Board Member Natasha Johnson, Director of Partnerships at Global Entrepreneurs UK

Read Article

05 June 2024

Free Expert Business Advice and Support available through East Midlands Chamber’s Accelerator Programme

Read Article

03 June 2024

Spotlight on our Board: D2N2 LEP Board Member Professor Edward Peck CBE, Vice-Chancellor and President, Nottingham Trent University

Read Article

24 May 2024

Focus on the East Midlands: our time is NOW!

Read Article

24 May 2024

D2N2 LEP CEO, Will Morlidge, shares our East Midlands Hydrogen ambitions at UKREiiF

Read Article

24 May 2024

East Midlands Freeport and Freeport East Sign Green Freight Corridor Initiative at UKREiiF

Read Article

Get in touch.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up
Address

D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership
8 Experian Way
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG2 1EP

Social

Our Partners