Staff at Crawley pension provider People’s Partnership volunteer time to mentor local schoolchildren

The Year 9 pupils at Hazelwick School, Three Bridges, are being mentored by workers from the not-for-profit provider of The People’s Pension as part of the Dare to Dream programme.

Dare to Dream is a programme created by the LoveLocalJobs Foundation Community Interest Company (CIC)2, which aims to support the self-awareness, resilience, employability skills and wellbeing of young people.

This year’s Crawley programme in partnership with Crawley Borough Council has involved five schools and nearly 1,100 pupils aged 13 and 14 from across the Crawley borough. A total of 300 youngsters at Hazelwick have benefited from special assemblies while a hand-picked group of 15 pupils have been mentored by five members of staff at People’s Partnership, who work in a variety of departments such as IT, customer service, sales and marketing.

People’s Partnership, which provides The People’s Pension to six million savers across the country, is an established supporter of Dare to Dream, and also offers apprenticeships for roles its customer service team.

Nicola Sinclair, Head of Responsible Business at People’s Partnership, said: “At People’s Partnership, we have a real focus on helping our employees to develop by offering initiatives like apprenticeships and providing training for qualifications, so it’s fantastic that we’re also able to help students in the local community start thinking about their career.

“As an organisation that was founded for social good and is committed to help make a difference to our local community, we’re delighted to have been asked to help nurture the talent of tomorrow.”