‘Raising Aspirations’ is delivered by Derbyshire Education Business Partnership (DEBP) and supports young people from years 6 to 13 who face multiple barriers in education.

The programme provides intensive support to address the needs of each individual student so they can reach their full potential.

An employability worker supports each learner and small groups of learners to identify interests, goals and experiences that will help them to raise their aspirations.

Since 2015 the programme has reached in excess of 7,500 learners, with all Year 11 targeted participants moving onto positive Post-16 destinations in education, employment and training.

In addition, the Year 8 building resilience ‘Shine’ initiative delivered a social return on investment of £11.40 for every £1.00 spent in the academic year 2019 to 2020.

Raising Aspirations will be delivered in 2020 to 2021 across Derbyshire in partnership with:

• 8 mainstream secondary schools
• 5 Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) schools
• 2 support centres
• 5 primary schools

Clare Talati, Managing Director of DEBP, said:  “The ‘Raising Aspirations’ initiative has never had a one size fits all approach, it remains consistent in its aims and objectives, but is delivered in a vibrant, responsive and bespoke way, recognising the unique needs of the children, young people, schools and communities at its centre.

“A core element of the initiative is putting the taught curriculum into context and our amazing network of employer volunteers provide meaningful encounters and world of work experiences that assist young people to identify their skills and goals; motivating them to engage more fully with education so that they too can have a successful future, one that is not dependent on the long term support of services.

“The DEBP team are excited to continue this partnership and broaden the access to the programme so that we can support more children and young people to be the best that they can be.”

Derbyshire Education Business Partnership supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.