The health and welfare of our young people, volunteers, and wider network is always our utmost priority. Naturally, given the current situation, we are having to make some changes to our programme delivery to best protect all parties. We are in constant communication with our schools, colleges, employers and volunteers and are following their recommendations and policies, as well as our own.
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday 25 March, 2.30 p.m.
We are taking steps to mitigate any risk of infection and further spread of the virus:
Programme delivery
Effective immediately, we are postponing all in-school and employer-based activities, across all our programmes, until further notice.
Summer 2020 internships
We have taken the tough decision to not go ahead with our internships and work placements this summer. Understandably, many of our employer supporters (large and small) are unable to commit to offering these opportunities. We all know how valuable these experiences are for our young people. However, at this time this is the right decision as it protects our young people, our people and our volunteers.
Over the coming weeks we will be working with all our partners to explore how we might deliver these experiences later in the year. We are also looking to develop a digital/virtual offer that we know we can deliver with more certainty for all the young people on our programme.
Switching to e-mentoring
Despite school closures, we will be continuing with our mentoring programme, albeit virtually, and will continue writing to all mentors and their students asking them to commit to working together through these uncertain times. We are working as quickly as we can to provide extra guidance to help mentors switch from face-to-face meetings to e-mentoring, over the phone or via video call, whatever works best for them and their student.
Regarding additional programme elements, our advice remains the same that LAB meetings should be conducted over video call where possible and we are exploring ways to deliver masterclasses online too, either at a national or local level.
Our staff
Effective Friday 13 March, all our staff will work remotely. All meetings, unless essential, will be conducted via Zoom/Teams or phone call. This will mean that our main office telephone number will be out of operation until further notice. All email and social media channels will continue to function as normal.
Please keep in touch. For further information or to discuss our operational plan further, please contact your Regional Manager or email: info@careerready.org.uk.
