Career Ready (careerready.org.uk/1000Futures) is a social mobility charity, whose purpose is to support the social inclusion and mobility of young people in S5 and S6 of high school.
They work with secondary schools across 19 local authorities in Scotland and are looking for more employers to help young people kick-start their career by taking part in their programme, which involves providing monthly mentoring at your workplace (1–1.5 hrs per month) along with a paid 4-week summer 2026 internship.
Over 350 employers work in partnership with Career Ready across Scotland, including a number of housing associations, directly raising awareness of the Routes to Housing on offer with secondary schools and young people in your local community.
Being part of the Career Ready programme offers many benefits to young people and employers:
- Provides rewarding skills development and engagement opportunities for employees
- Enable opportunities to connect with other local organisations who partner with Career Ready
- Raising awareness of our industry and organisation as a local employer with schools and young people across your region
- Supports corporate and social responsibility and diversity
Career Ready’s ambition is to welcome 1,000 further young people onto their upcoming 2025-27 programme (currently 844 on the current 2024-26 programme) across Scotland, commencing over the next few months. This short video and their latest 2024 Career Ready Scotland impact report provides further information on the impact their programme of mentoring with an internship has for young people.
Mentors are from a wide range of job roles and career backgrounds – you don’t need to be a people manager or in a senior role to be a mentor – for more information click here.
Kingdom Group has taken part in the Career Ready programme every year since 2017. Andrew Latto, People and Business Services Director at Kingdom said: “Kingdom are a proud partner of this fantastic social mobility charity. I, along with a number of colleagues, including our Chief Executive and many of our senior team, have been mentors and we have all found it a really rewarding experience.
"For the young people themselves, the programme provides support, guidance, workplace experience, and insight into the world of work to help them pursue the career of their choice. For mentors, it gives great insight into the wants, desires, challenges and expectations of young people and an amazing sense of pride in seeing their mentee develop.
"Kingdom's mission is to provide More Than A Home - key in that is supporting the young people in our communities to have fulfilling and rewarding careers. Career Ready helps us in that without a huge amount of time or financial investment."
Clydebank Housing Association (CHA) is participating in the 2024-26 Career Ready programme by supporting two S5 students from a local secondary school. CHA plan to continue their work with Career Ready to support further students in their upcoming 2025-27 intake.
Lynette Lees, CHA Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted that members of our senior leadership team have had the opportunity to mentor and support their mentees successfully in our first year of the programme. Our mentees Eden and Kyle have demonstrated high levels of engagement and commitment during their mentor meetings and 4-week paid summer internship. We are looking forward to continuing our support for future talent and encouraging young people to consider a career in the housing sector through our work with Career Ready.”
If you would like to find out more and get involved, please visit this link: careerready.org.uk/1000Futures/ or contact Leanna Sinclair, Career Ready Partnerships Manager at leanna.sinclair@careerready.org.uk
