Unlocking Potential

Providing career-focused support to disadvantaged 14-19 year olds across Greater Merseyside.

  • Location

    Greater Merseyside

  • Launch

    Mar 2015

  • Area

    Education & Employment

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Department of Work & Pensions

Delivery Partners

  • Career Connect

Team

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Department of Work & Pensions

Delivery Partners

  • Career Connect

  • Mila founded and leads Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP). At BOP, we work to radically improve human services and environmental initiatives to improve outcomes for people and value for society. Programmes BOP supports are dedicated to empowering people across the world to improve their lives, in areas ranging from education and wellbeing to housing, child protection, employment and environmental protection. Mila is on boards of Positive Families Partnership, Stronger Families, Forward, North East Lincolnshire Thrive, Ways to Wellness, Education Outcomes Partnerships, along with other family, employment, and refugee support focused programmes.

    Mila is also a Trustee for Clore Social Leadership, organisation dedicated to providing social leaders with world class leadership development.

    Prior to Bridges, Mila’s career spanned public, private, and third sector. Mila helped create and run Education Generation, a crowdsourcing social enterprise focused on enabling young leaders in low-and middle-income countries to participate in some of the world’s most forward-thinking education programmes.

  • Andrew is Co-Founder of Bridges Outcomes Partnerships and Executive Director of Operations, Innovation and Learning. He is a Director of Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership, GM Homes Partnership, Homelessness Support, the Single Homeless Prevention Service and is a Trustee of West London Zone.

    Prior to Bridges, Andrew was Managing Director of a social enterprise “Baobab” in Madagascar, and a non-Executive board member of two other financial inclusion social enterprises, in Senegal and China.

Overview

Unlocking Potential is a project which followed on from our Triodos New Horizons project. It was one of the first to ‘follow-on’ outcomes contracts in the world.

Delivered by Career Connect, a charity providing career-focused guidance, advice and support across Greater Merseyside, the programme supported disadvantaged 14-19 year olds – with a focus on ex-offenders, those in or leaving care, and those with learning difficulties – coaching them with structured ‘Mental Toughness’ courses to help them get back into education or employment.

Career Connect also worked with local organisations to provide specialised vocational support for young people on the New Horizons project.

Outcomes

Unlocking Potential worked with over 4,000 young people across a three-year period. Collectively, participants achieved 3,900 qualification outcomes, including 350 Level 2 (GCSE) and 78 Level 3 (A-Level) qualifications

  • 4040

    Starts to the programme

  • 1883

    Improvements in school behaviour

  • 3929

    Entries into education

  • £4.3m

    Outcomes achieved