Author: wp_mor

RISE works in partnership with the Talent Foundry to provide a fully funded one-day workshop for individuals to participate in.

The RISE  initiative exists to support young people in hard-to-reach areas of the UK, its overall aim is to help young people develop the skills that they will need in future life for businesses and the workplace.

These workshops are designed to help overcome the impact of the pandemic on young people’s education by improving social mobility and helping to develop their current skills, resulting in successful future careers.

RISE aims to aid young people by helping them to develop core transferable skills such as: listening, speaking, problem solving, creativity, staying positive and aiming high, alongside leadership and teamwork.

Sarah Morrin volunteered at Bodmin College as part of the Rise initiative, to help KS4 students, aged between 14 and 16, to participate and understand how their skills can be transferred and used successfully in a workplace setting.

Throughout the session, the young people were involved and actively encouraged to develop their skills around interacting and speaking up in a large group and learning how to communicate with a range of different professions in the workplace.

Her role during the workshop was to support a group of young people and show them that their current skills  are very relevant and transferable  to a workplace setting and by identifying further development and learning new skills, such as communication in all areas and levels, this would help them to succeed in the workplace and build their future careers.

She enjoyed volunteering at this RISE workshop, meeting the young people, chatting to them and discovering what aspirations they have for their future working lives. It was reassuring that these young people were keen to learn and develop the skills they need to overcome future challenges in the workplace or in their daily lives.

Christmas Book Donation 2024

The purchase of books for our local schools has been so successful over the past couple of years and has provided so much enjoyment for the children, young people and all involved that we have reached out again this year to offer the excitement and magical feeling of having a new book to read.

Last year we reached out to some of our local schools to offer to purchase some books for them. It was a great success, and the children were so enthusiastic about the books they received. Knowing the importance of access to books for students, we reached out again this year to offer another book donation.

Fowey River Academy chose several books for each year group, and it was lovely visit the school today to hear from Deborah the librarian about how the children had provided some great deal of input on the books that they wanted to have in the library. Deborah approached each year group and collected some of their favourite authors and titles. They have chosen some really interesting and varied books, and several had already been taken out, which was brilliant to hear. Deborah has been achieving so much with the library and it was lovely to see how much it has progressed since our visit last year.

We also provided Tywardreath Pre-school Playgroup with a Christmas book for each of the children. They have received a mixture of traditional and modern Christmas books, that will suit the ages of the children. These will be wrapped up to hand out to the children at their end of term Christmas party and they may even have a visit from the big man himself to hand out the books to the children.

Arriving back to the office after a lovely morning talking about books to be greeted with the most beautiful rainbow over the valley.

In October each year Fowey River academy hold a work experience week for their year 10 students as part of the Jobcentre Plus support for schools programme. Under the programme, advisers from Jobcentres go into schools to offer pupils advice on work, CV writing and routes into work. The school found participation in the programme to be a positive experience for the students. 

As part of the week several business leaders, including Morvah Consulting, were invited to attend and hold mock interviews with the students. Each student had a short interview with some set questions. The students were excellent and a real credit to the school. They were smart, articulate and some had a real passion for their chosen careers already.

It was a real honour to be invited to participate in the mock interviews and a big thank you to the kitchen team who provided a delicious carrot cake for the tea break.

We were invited to volunteer with PwC as part of their social mobility programme New World. New Skills. The New World. New skills programme invites schools nationally to experience the world of work, to help to develop confidence and aspirations in their students.

PwC want the very best people to want to join them, and believe that the best people must reflect the widest range of society. They want to make sure that everyone has access to work, regardless of their background, where they are from, and whatever their education route.  

Students were able to come into the offices and speak to volunteers and hear their journeys and learn about their pathways into their career. This helps to opens the minds of the students and opens their world to the opportunities that are available to them.

Volunteers facilitated three activities that were designed to simulate the world of work for a younger audience.

The activities focused on gaining new employability skills. They are developing and setting their goals, and then they’ll come to our offices where they do a consulting challenge.

Feedback from PwC

Thank you for being part of the New World, New Skills schools programme. The Social Mobility team really appreciates the time you have volunteered to support us to deliver our schools programme to around 1500 students from low socio-economic backgrounds in the UK. You have helped develop skills such as teamwork and communication in young people; and opened the eyes of students to new possibilities. In sharing your story of your journey to PwC you have been a role model to young people. You have shown leadership in directing the school students through challenging tasks. You have shown communication in preparing the day with other volunteers from across the business.

PwC | New World. New Skills – Schools series

In June we participated in the careers day at Fowey River Academy,

We spoke to students from year 7 students who were 11-12 years of age and year 8 students who were 12-13 years of age.

The sessions focused on the importance of learning, skills and qualifications for future careers. Some of the students already had interests in particular roles, but for many it was an early exploration of what is needed to work in fields of interest.

Our aim was to offer students an opportunity to broaden what they think is possible for themselves in the future. We gave them the opportunity to hear about what life after school, and particularly life and work in different jobs and sectors in Cornwall and further afield can really be like.

We also reached out to some businesses and requested any resources which we could have to provide for the students to take away We we able to provide the students with resources such as:

• Women in Mining ‘100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining’ 2022,
• Neon – Brilliant inspiration for STEM
• Geoscience for the Future

In December 2022 Fowey River Academy asked for donations of non-fiction books for their library. Morvah Consulting reached out and arranged to provide the school with 50 non-fiction books.

Access to books and help reading is important for these students. Lacking literacy skill, holds people back at every stage of their lives and this can lead to a struggle with social mobility. It was also important for us that the books that we provided dealt with some of the issues that our young students will face, so we included books about Diversity and Inclusion.

We were thrilled to be invited to the school to meet with Deborah the librarian and some of the children who use the library regularly. We chatted with them about the importance of reading and which of the new books they were excited to read. We also looked at the work Deborah has been doing to improve the library.

We also reached out to Fowey Primary School and Tywardreath Primary school, and offered to provide them with a selection of books for each year group from reception to year six. The schools were extremely pleased to receive their books and the feedback has been that the children have enjoyed reading these.

Reading is something to enjoy from an early age and we were delighted to also support Santa and Tywardreath Pre-School Playgroup and their annual give a child a book for Christmas scheme.

A huge thank you to Kate at Independent Bookseller | Shrew Books | England. She did an amazing job of creating some wonderful collections for each of our local schools.

In 2022 Morvah Consulting donated each month to Go Give One

Go Give One is a COVID-19 fundraising campaign with no borders. Created by the WHO Foundation, the campaign calls on everyone, everywhere to play their part in helping to vaccinate the world.

Their aim is to get 50 million people to take part in this campaign.

Go Give One – Vaccines for everyone, everywhere

In 1925 the Treffry family gave a field to the Fowey Borough Council for use as a recreational field, it is still in use by the community today and has become known as Squires Field.  

Squires Field Community Centre CIC has been set up to look after these facilities and provides regular activities and events for the local community. The directors and committee members are all volunteers who maintain the upkeep of the building and grounds with money raised through the hire of the centre, donations and grants. 

Squires field currently has currently has a football pitch and pavilion, a community centre and a modern children’s play area. They have recently started up a youth club on a Friday evening which has proved to be incredibly popular with the young people in the town and the committee asked for some extra equipment for activities.  

Morvah Consulting contacted the committee and offered to purchase some equipment for the youth club and were pleased to be able to provide them with some dodgeball equipment. Feedback so far from Sophie Burt (Director at SFCC) has been great with lots more fun to come….. 

Every year in the spring e7’s calls for applications from young women ages 18-25 who want to make a difference in their communities and society. Usually, each cohort consists 65% of Emirates representing all seven Emirates, and 35% of long-term residents of the UAE of other nationalities.

Daughters of the Emirates is an incubator for social and environmental impact projects. It is also an annual community leadership program for 35 young women who call the United Arab Emirates their home; nationals and long term residents alike. From the inaugural e7 Summit to the final Graduation, e7 actively educates, inspires, and connects young women through a 9 month program.

Each cohort is supposed by a wider community of team members, mentors, workshop facilitators, alumnae, and corporate partners.

In 2018/2019 Sarah Morrin supported one of the groups, taking part in the initiative as a mentor.