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Leading Lights
This project is a varation of the Changing Voices project which was commissioned by Aspire in 2008.The title of the project, ‘Leading Lights’ refers to the concept of using role models to inspire young people and to use the experiences of these role models to stimulate dicussion.
The project had two parts: workshops in schools and the role models handbook.
This project ran from September 2009 to July 2010.
The project hinges on the use of local people that understand the dynamics of the Luton community and utilising the successes that they have had in their careers to encourage and inspire young people studying in Luton today.
There is a wealth of talent and success in Luton, and we wanted to utilise this and enable people from Luton to give back to the community that they grew up in.
Leading Lights Workshop
This workshop involves taking former Luton students back into schools to speak about their education path and career.
The project was piloted in Challney High School for Girls in June 2010, with students from Year 10.
5 role models spent the morning working with the students, speaking about their education and career decisions and how they had come to where they were now. The students were able to question the role models on a variety of topics including career choices, pressures and influences they were affected by and the difficulties and hurdles that they had to overcome.
What they said about the Leading Lights Workshop
"The workshop was helpful because the role models were similar backgrounds as the students. This shows the students that they can be as successful as them. Some role models did what their parents wanted them to do and were successful where as others did what they wanted to do and were also successful. The role models motivated the students and gave them something to aspire to. Also they were able to address the student’s questions that would not have been answered without the role models being present.” ( Challney High School for Girls, Teachers )
“It helped me find out about the advantages and disadvantages of going in to college and university and how hard it is to find a job. All the jobs were interesting, but there could have been more careers that other people would want to do."
“The workshop has given us the motivation to do well and shows us that no matter what happens you can do really well and be successful if you try your best and work hard." ( Challney High School for Girls, Students )
Leading Lights Handbook
The Leading Lights handbook was planned as a supplementary resource to the workshops being conducted in schools. The projected was conducted jointly with Aimhigher. The booklet, a 56 page glossy booklet profiles former Luton students, their education choices and career decisions. It is intended to be a resource for young people to be used in schools and edcational establishments. 10'000 copies have been printed to date and have been distributed free of charge to all Luton high schools.
For the profiles we chose a variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures. We were also able to include a multitude of different careers and also included Oxbridge students.The handbook is a testement to wealth of talent in Luton.
Leading Lights Handbook Launch
The handbook was launched during an official event at Luton Learning resource Centre on June 17th and was attended by over 50 people from the Luton education sector and council. We were also privileged to have 10 role models in attendance. Speeches were made by Gavin Shuker-MP, Kelvin Hopkins-MP, Sarah Allen-LBC and Roisin Fulton-Aimhigher.
