TACKLING THE ASPIRATION GAP

Some of the schools in Banbury have said that they struggle with low parent and student aspirations. They felt there was a need to take the ceiling off the students' ambitions and broaden their view of business in general. They want to find ways to inspire students to think more broadly about their future. However, to make relationships sustainable, local businesses should see a tangible benefit from engaging with local schools.

There are currently nine activities running, here are a few examples:

The National Grid has run a one day course at its Head Office for local sixth form students.
The National Grid is running a two day course for 200 students around energy use, development and delivery.
An RSA Fellow is developing a photographic based project to help students understand how some local businesses work and represent this express their views using photography.
An RSA Fellow with over 30 years supply chain experience is sharing this knowledge with students who are setting up enterprise business projects.
Fellows have been giving “expert” lessons in marketing, ethics and helping with students reading.

There is a great potential to enable local businesses to engage in curriculum input and gain insights into how student learning can be enhanced by real world contexts. To capitalise on our initial work a proper foundation needs to be built to take the project forward to a sustainable future, and to do this Driving Ambition needs to build its impact and profile in the Banbury area.

Scalability

The intention is to scale up the project to work with three more schools and learning centres (to make six in total) and a minimum of five new businesses (this would be 10 in total).

The project is showcased using a high quality video (funded by RSA Catalyst) along with presentational packs which students, business leaders and Fellows can use to promote Driving Ambition. The video shows clips from activities underway and sound bites from students, staff and businesses.

Visit Driving Ambition's website