What an incredible year 2024 has been for The Inspirational Learning Group!
We’ve reached more young people than ever, blending innovative, engaging methods with our tried-and-true challenges. Along the way, we’ve been transforming how young people view and prepare for their futures, creating opportunities for growth and inspiration like never before.
Expanding our diverse portfolio of challenges
We are proud to have engaged and positively influenced students in over 370 schools across 2024. From Glasgow to Torquay and Northern Ireland to Sunderland, our facilitation teams have travelled the length and breadth of the country delivering 13 separate challenges to 70,000 students enabling them to develop the crucial skills for the world of work.
Our flagship challenge, The National Careers Challenge in partnership with NatWest Thrive was delivered for the 13th year with sponsors NatWest Thrive, Air Products, JCB, AtkinsRéalis. We were delighted to welcome home improvement retailer Wickes and flag carrier airline of the UK, British Airways as sponsors for the 24/25 academic year with NatWest Thrive and Air Products.
The National Skills Challenge in partnership with NatWest Thrive was delivered to 1300 students across the country. NatWest Thrive funded 12 deliveries at colleges aligned with their chosen accelerator hubs enabling us to engage with students in Northern Ireland and Scotland for the first time.
Alongside TILG favourites including the Stocks and Shares Challenge, Team Building Challenge and My Perfect University, we have also delivered brand new challenges including the JCB Solutions Challenge, Wickes Enterprise Challenge, IET Faraday Challenge and My Digital Future in collaboration with Staffordshire based companies Wavemaker CIC (consortium lead), Rapuru and Framescape.
Announcing our 2024 ambassador
We were delighted to announce Simon Squibb, Entrepreneur and founder of HelpBnk.com as the official ambassador of The National Careers Challenge 2024/25, in partnership with NatWest Thrive.
Known for his viral move of buying a staircase in London and slapping on a Ring doorbell on it where folks can pitch their dreams, Simon is on a mission to help 10 million people kick start their businesses.
Simon first became associated with The Inspirational Learning Group during our 2024 TNCC finals where he inspired our aspiring entrepreneurs on HelpBnk‘s trade stand and joined our esteemed afternoon judging panel, live-streaming the National Finals to his 5 million followers!
Simon is passionate about empowering young people to build the skills that they need to thrive in life and we’re incredibly excited to continue our work with him and his team over the coming year.
Inspiring the next generation of engineers in Staffordshire
2024 marked our second year as the UK delivery partner for Next Engineers and inspiring future generations of aspiring engineers. Over 6,000 students have taken part in transformative learning experiences with us, increasing the diversity of young people in engineering.
Year 9 students in Staffordshire completed hands-on activities in their classrooms to expand their understanding of what engineering is all about through the Discovery programme and we were thrilled to welcome 100 young people to our HQ in Stafford in the summer as part of the fortnight long Experience programme.
In addition to this, we also welcomed back 100 students as part of the Academy programme – a 3 year development programme which encourages students (ages 15 to 18) to think and act like engineers, all whilst preparing them to advance to higher education.
We were delighted to celebrate our inaugural Academy cohort who graduated the programme this summer. 32 students from 16 secondary schools across Staffordshire completed the programme and celebrated their success at a graduation ceremony at Uttoxeter Racecourse. From Mechanical Engineering Degrees at university, to Civil Engineering apprenticeships, to taking a gap year to travel the world, our “builders of tomorrow” are going on to achieve remarkable things.
Shining a light on future skills
Through our new, interactive, bespoke platform Lightbulb, teachers are now able to access high-quality careers education content that is accessible anywhere at any time.
The platform is home to all of our challenges, curricula (including the Enterprise and Careers Curriculums) and careers information to help young people develop their skills for the future.
In addition to these, teachers can also access our free resources, including The Oli Leigh Trust Mental Health Challenge and on-demand content ensuring that their students develop the skills needed to make informed decisions about their futures.
New projects for 2024
Complimenting our challenges, our team has been hard at work delivering bespoke projects throughout the year, expanding our reach to new audiences in previously untapped areas for TILG.
As part of our 3-year partnership with The Oli Leigh Trust, we launched The Oli Leigh Trust Mental Health Challenge and resources which can be accessed free of charge. Every school in the UK has the opportunity to access the valuable resources and it was also announced that bespoke training will also be made available to all adults in educational settings to ensure a holistic and well-rounded approach to mental health training from January 2025.
The Yes Project, in partnership with YMCA North Staffordshire and UKSPF, has seen us creating opportunities for the young people of Stoke on Trent to find direction into further education and employment. Through work preparation coaching, CV building and interview preparation, we have collaborated with other partners to bring life chances for young people together in one place.
We are pleased to be the Regional lead for the Careers and Enterprise Company’s “Start Small; Dream Big” primary careers programme. The 12 month programme will see our team deliver CPD training for teachers in 48 primary schools in Staffordshire, explore what good careers education looks like at primary school level and collaborating with GivEnergy to provide those teachers with an employer encounter.
From primary schools to adult learning, the Multiply project is a fully funded government scheme offering maths courses to adults aged 19 and over and this year we were announced as a training provider for the project earlier in the year. Our team has been engaging with local employers and parents to access free courses to enable adults to feel more confident in their own numeracy abilities.
Celebrating young people’s success
No mention of our 2024 highlights would be complete without recognising the events that we’ve hosted this year!
The year kicked off with a bang as we officially launched The National Careers Challenge, in partnership with NatWest Thrive, for the 2024 academic year at the House of Lords.
This was closely followed by the “JCB Regional Challenge” finals held at JCB Headquarters in Rocester and the “My Digital Future Challenge” finals at the University of Staffordshire.
On Tuesday 10th July, The National Careers Challenge in partnership with NatWest Thrive held its 12th Grand Finals at Doncaster Racecourse. We welcomed over a thousand students, teachers and business guests to our biggest finals event since 2020! From students in fancy dress, to impressive prototypes and mascots, the entrance to Doncaster Racecourse was awash with so much excitement and creativity … true testament to the hard work that goes into the schools preparing for the annual finals.
We also celebrated our Next Engineers Cohort 1 student’s achievements at their graduation ceremony at Uttoxeter Racecourse before welcoming students to NatWest HQ and Wickes Support Centre to crown our National Skills Challenge champions and Wickes Wellbeing Challenge champions respectively.
Expanding our international reach
Following the launch of the “School of the Future” challenge with AtkisRéalis for Year 10 students as part of 2023/24 The National Careers Challenge in partnership with NatWest Thrive, we were excited that the challenge launched in the UAE. 70 students from the Dubai English Speaking College were supported by representatives from AtkinsRéalis as they worked their way through the virtual challenge, which saw students creating a “School of the Future” focused on sustainability and community support.
TILG also celebrated the achievements of 50 students from China through our partnership with SKT Education & Beyond and welcomed the students to The National Careers Challenge finals at Doncaster Racecourse.
We are also exploring further opportunities within India and additional opportunities with the UK which will ensure that TILG continues to grow, with increasing reach and influence in the education sector.
A message from our co-founders
Ben Dyer, co-founder of The Inspirational Learning Group said, “ It has been an extraordinary year for The Inspirational Learning Group, we have engaged with even more young people than we ever have done and explored new ways to interact with students. We would like to thank all of our sponsors and corporate clients that we have worked with in 2024 for their ongoing support and we are also incredibly proud of the corporate relationships that we have built this year and look forward to these coming to fruition in the near future. Our dedicated team of facilitators, operational and sales professionals all share the same passion for careers education and motivating students to succeed and this is what truly makes TILG work – thank you. We look forward to engaging and inspiring with even more young people in 2025!”.
