Many school


staff want to embrace change and innovation, but they simply do not have the time. The way that schools measure ROI is different to the way you or I might do.


Mitesh Bhimjiyani


Mitesh Bhimjiyani is a former investment banker who set up Success at School, a national careers website, to help young people make informed decisions about their future. It reaches around 500 schools and 30,000 people a month.


How many of you would get this question right?


Which of the following is a consulting firm? • Accenture • Allen & Overy • BAE Systems • Goldman Sachs • L’Oreal • PwC • RBS


I am pretty sure that we are looking at a 100% success rate here. But how many school students do you think picked correctly (and bear in mind that we allowed either Accenture or PwC to be correct so they had a better chance)?


Just 16.3% of the pupils we surveyed got the answer right. If they had been asked to guess randomly, they would have had a 28% chance of being correct. There is a lot of work to do in raising awareness of top employers’ brands among young people.


The challenges of connecting with schools Before setting up Success at School I spent a year talking to school staff about careers and employability. I discovered an impossible-to- navigate maze of information,


30 Graduate Recruiter | www.agr.org.uk


consisting of the odd company flyer, a list of websites and a few phone numbers. I realised that teachers did not have the best knowledge of the major employers out there and how to link them with the future talent at their school or college.


This is what inspired me to set up a national careers website so young people could understand the different options out there and employers could access the school market. Easier said than done.


When I left the world of investment banking, there were some things that I took for granted. For example, you send an email or leave a phone message and someone calls you right back. It is infinitely harder to reach the right person at a school or college. Add to this the fact that there are more than 4,000 schools in the UK and it seemed like an insurmountable task.


Building relationships and trust Building brand value in the schools market takes time and patience – something I have experienced first-hand over the last couple of years. Many school staff want to embrace change and innovation, but they simply do not have the


time. The way that schools measure ROI is different to the way you or I might do. They want to know: • Is it easy for me to deliver? • How much time will it take? • How much value will it be to my students?


• Does it meet my Ofsted benchmarks?


Even if the answer is yes to all of the above, you still have to achieve buy-in from senior leadership. The process drags on. However, teachers are key influencers among young people, so it is crucial that we access this market.


A series of interviews with industry figures


Case study: Valley Park School


Over the last couple of years, we have done all the hard work in accessing schools and developing strong relationships with them.


Valley Park School in Maidstone, Kent, is just one of the schools that now use the site. The head of Year 10, Miss Parker, said about the decision to sign up, “It just looked like something our students would really easily get to grips with, but also find it a really useful tool when they are making decisions about what kind of jobs they want to go into in the future.”


James, a Year 13 pupil at the school, added “It shows that there is something after sixth form. Lots of people feel that it’s school, and that’s it. They forget that there is a whole other life that you’ve got to live afterwards and there’s so much on offer, and it gives you these choices.”


We now reach around 500 schools and 30,000 people a month. These numbers are rising quickly. Working together, we can finally unravel the maze and take you into the classroom where you belong. n


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