4C UR Future

Jan 10, 2022

4C UR Future is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, which was established to help address skills shortages in Northern Ireland by involving, informing, and inspiring young people to make more empowered education and career choices.

In 2019, the organisation held a successful ‘proof of concept’ pilot 4C UR Future LIVE event, which was attended by almost 1,200 Year 9 pupils and supported by over 120 volunteers from 30 cross-sectoral companies.

In 2022, 4C UR Future is holding 11 LIVE at-scale pilot events, one in each council area in Northern Ireland. These events will host approximately 7,500 Year 9 pupils, and be supported by over 200 volunteers from over 50 companies.

Each event will consist of a number of fast-paced work experience games and skills-based challenges reflective of the different industry sectors in NI from business to transport; social care to coding; and hospitality to engineering, to name but a few. The games are designed in collaboration with local employers to identify each young person’s strengths and attributes, which are aligned with in-demand skills for the future world of work.

 

Following each of the LIVE events, participants receive a Personal Feedback Profile, which can be used to assist educational and career-related decisions, and signpost young people to the range of resources and content available on the 4C UR Future CAREERS PORTAL.

Supported by funding from The James Kane Foundation, a first-generation CAREERS PORTAL will be developed and launched in 2022. All Year 9 students who are registered by their school will be given access to the careers portal developed under this programme in 2022. The content hosted on the portal is industry-led and up to date.

The portal content will be created with the help of paid Content Creation Interns (6-month placements), recruited via local further and higher education establishments, who will receive wrap-around training, upskilling, and support. Internship pathways include public relations; marketing and digital marketing; corporate communications; videography and photography; graphic design; and website design and development.

4C UR Future plans to scale the LIVE pilot to enable every Year 9 pupil in Northern Ireland to attend a 4C UR Future LIVE event and have access to the CAREERS PORTAL (circa 25,000 young people per year), including extending portal access to a wider range of year groups.

Under the organisation’s current plans, by 2028 over 200,000 pupils, aged between Year 9 and Year 12, will have access to personalised, relevant, and relatable content via the CAREERS PORTAL, significantly opening up pathways to employment for all young people in Northern Ireland.