Social Impact
HOW WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Our Social Impact Board aims to ensure that InvestIN is constantly working towards the mission of bridging the gap that exists between school and industry for all young people. We strive to widen and diversify participation by offering bursaries and improving accessibility and inclusivity on our programmes. We also focus on improving social impact internally, through charity schemes, fundraising initiatives, mentoring opportunities and more.
Bursaries and Scholarships
We want our life-changing career experiences to be accessible to everyone so we offer a number of bursaries that cover 100% of the programme fee. We are thrilled to have provided over 1,000 bursaries to students last academic year and are striving to support even more students with our opportunities this year, with more bursaries available than ever before!
Bursary Criteria
Bursaries are available to our Partner Schools, for anystudent that meets the below criteria:
1. You are currently in receipt of a bursary from the government's 16 to 19 bursary fund (or equivalent)
2. You currently receive free school meals during secondary education or have done so in the past six years
3. You have been in care or taken the role of a carer at home
We do appreciate that some students may require financial support, but do not reach the above criteria. We would never wish to restrict a student from attendance, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@investin.org if you have any questions
Please note: although bursaries are available for both our in-person and live online opportunities, places are highly limited and granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
How do I apply?
- Bursaries are available for our Partner Schools. You can check if your school is a Partner School via our interactive map, here.
- If your school is not yet a Partner with us, they can follow the simple application form here to join our community of over 1,000 schools and take advantage of our cost-free Partner School Initiative.
- If you wish to submit an application, please ask your school to contact their dedicated Relationship Manager or ask them to send an email to info@investin.org for further information.
- If you are an international student, are home-schooled or have an alternative circumstance that is unlisted, please email info@investin.org
% of the students who attend our programmes are BAME
% of the students who attend our programmes identify as female
% of our summer experiences include a dedicated EDI session
% of professionals on our panels identify as female
Accessibility & Inclusion
At InvestIN, we strive to create an inclusive, respectful and representative environment, both on our programmes and within our company. We understand there is much to be done to make the workforce fair and inclusive. We seek to play our part in every possible way so we can help bring about impactful change.
We include expert-led equality, diversity and inclusion sessions on each of our summer experiences. Through realistic, interactive scenarios we teach students how to foster inclusivity and dismantle barriers in their future workplace. Students also receive in-depth guidance and feedback from specialists in the area.
To further foster inclusivity, InvestIN programmes have no application process and no prior knowledge is required.
Special Educational Needs
Our priority is that all our students gain a valuable insight into their dream career. To achieve this, we work hard to ensure our content is accessible and caters to individual needs.
In the past, we have offered adjustments such as alternative resources, advance materials, regular check-ins, breaks, 1:1 support and much more. Should a student require any additional support, and would like to discuss this further, we kindly ask that they complete this form or reach out to us at info@investin.org. A member of our team will then be happy to arrange a call and see how we can best support the student during their time with us.
We offer experiences in 15 of the world’s most desirable careers.
View ProgrammesCharity Initiatives
Supporting charitable initiatives is something of strong importance to our InvestIN team. We raise awareness of the fantastic charities that exist around the UK and beyond through internal fundraising initiatives, where we spotlight a new charity each term, and through external volunteering days, which each member of the company is able to utilise across the year.
We take fundraising one step further by running charity competitions throughout the year for our student community. A few examples can be found below:
My Peaceful Place: InvestIN’s Young Photographer Competition
In honour of Stress Awareness Week we asked students to send us a photograph they’d taken that represented their peaceful place. We received over 3,500 remarkable images and donated £2000 to Stem4 as a result. Click here to see the winning photo and the final shortlist.
Writing to Reflect: InvestIN’s Summer Writing Challenge
To celebrate National Writing Day and encourage reflection after a difficult year, we asked students to submit a creative writing piece detailing a lesson they’d learnt over the pandemic. More than 800 students responded to our challenge, helping raise £825 for UNICEF. Shortlisted entries were judged by award-winning spoken word poet Kayla Feldman - click here to view the winning piece and final shortlist.
Charity Partnerships
If you are a charity and wish to collaborate with us, we’d be delighted to partner with you. Our Charity Partnerships are cost-free and provide organisations with a range of benefits including:
- A 15% discount on any bookings they wish to make for students from financially underrepresented backgrounds
- Their charity details displayed on our website and the opportunity to share us on theirs, should they wish to
- Collaborative initiatives on social media
- Bespoke presentations on key employability skills for the young people they work with
- The opportunity to take part in our programmes and/or events, with the option of donating their fee to contribute to further InvestIN places for bursary students
If you’re interested in becoming a charity partner, or want to know more, feel free to email us at socialimpact@investin.org.
Mentorship Scheme
As part of our drive to help the next generation succeed, we set up the InvestIN Mentorship Scheme. We designed this initiative to pair ambitious students from underrepresented backgrounds with a member of InvestIN staff, with the aim of providing them with tailored careers advice and guidance.
Working in a 1:1 capacity, our mentors collaborate over a series of sessions with the students, fostering skill development and career confidence, through CV support, interview practice and goal-setting, to name a few.
Over 36 mentoring relationships were built last year and we’ve had brilliant feedback from our mentors, students and their teachers. Senior Programme Manager Elle, for example helped her mentee Aba to apply for a Dental Nursing Apprenticeship Programme in Berkhamsted. We were thrilled to hear that application was successful - congratulations Aba!
Our events
We run a series free-of-charge events for teachers, parents, students and professionals covering key employability skills. You can see details and register for our upcoming events below.
