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Helping Promising Students Become Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

Inside access to London’s thriving businesses equips an Ofsted outstanding school with the tools for entrepreneurship.

September 20, 2022

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Helping Promising Students Become Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

Inside access to London’s thriving businesses equips an Ofsted outstanding school with the tools for entrepreneurship.

MAN: St. Paul’s Way Trust School is located on a street in East London called St. Paul’s Way.

Speaker & screen text: Grahame Price, Headteacher, St. Paul's Way Trust School

Price: East London is generally regarded as a culturally rich neighbourhood, but for a number of years, the school here was not doing very well.

Speaker & screen text: Lord Andrew Mawson, St. Paul's Way Trust School

Mawson: So we thought, why don’t we create an entrepreneurial culture in which the 250 children here today begin to have aspirations about their life and their careers?

On screen: St. Paul's Way Trust School and J.P. Morgan

Mawson: We’ve turned around a school and started to build relationships between the school, the business people. We brought it together.

Speaker & screen text: Janet Iley, Director of Enterprise and Employability, St. Paul's Way Trust School

Iley: We’ve got children meeting all sorts of people in different businesses and having all sorts of experiences that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Price: We were delighted when J.P. Morgan wanted to be one of those organisations.

Speaker & screen text: Emmanuelle Mathey, J.P. Morgan

Mathey: J.P. does an amazing job having all these programmes. Giving J.P. Morgan employees the ability to contribute to the kids, I think it’s a kind of double positive really. It’s nice to be part of something that matters.

Iley: With J.P. Morgan, we have work-related learning programmes. We’ve done paid internships during the summer holidays. We’ve also had children who have been specially mentored by J.P. Morgan employees.

Speaker & screen text: Sabina, Student, St. Paul's Way trust School

Sabina: We were having conversations, mature, formal conversations with the J.P. Morgan team working with us. It was really inspiring, and I’m going to be doing an internship with them next week.

Mathey: The main difference you can see during the year is their ability to express themself in a clear manner and to really articulate their belief in themself. We’ve just given them a few soft skills-- CV building, networking. These simple things that will help them get where they want to be.

Iley: It is a whole different level of learning, and it’s giving them opportunities to get those jobs that they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to get.

Mathey: What’s really important for the community is to see these kids going out and achieving things. When one kid does something, then 50 kids will get more ideas and a feeling that they can achieve anything.

Mawson: There is a sense of opportunity here, appearing in East London. There’s a whole new generation coming forward.

Mathey: These are great kids, and you just want to make sure they don’t miss out on an opportunity.

Reading, writing and... detailed business plans? In addition to future mathematicians and historians, graduates of one East London school are now part of the next generation of entrepreneurs.

St. Paul’s Way Trust School (SPWTS), in Tower Hamlets, is thriving thanks to a community-wide effort that helped implement a creative curriculum rounded out with business and life lessons. The faculty and staff dedicate themselves to motivate their students and provide a first-rate education, resulting in high exam rates plus personal development opportunities. The school has been transformed—it is a fast-paced, highly achieving school that is both aspirational and inspirational, and students’ career goals and achievements are exploding.

Learning and Earning

To inspire students to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, SPWTS launched the Enterprise & Employability Project funded by and developed with J.P. Morgan. Students practice business skills in a field of their choice, whether it’s food, sports or fashion. They gain real work experience at businesses beyond their neighbourhood – including Canary Wharf and Central London – and connect with executives to discuss their interests and goals. One group of students, for example, developed a community recipe book which they successfully pitched to be stocked at a local Tescos.

This inside access to many of the UK’s thriving companies, including J.P. Morgan, offers exposure to new experiences, career tracks and ideas.

“Our relationships with people and organisations like J.P. Morgan are so special – that our teens are now working in Canary Wharf is incredibly rewarding and exciting,” said Janet I., director of Enterprise & Employability.

 

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Finding Mentorship and Confidence

J.P. Morgan, working with the school, initiated one programme designed to teach students important “soft skills” through mentorships with employees: presentation skills, self-confidence, CV writing and financial skills. Secondary school students attend sessions at J.P. Morgan at Canary Wharf, where they developed one-on-one relationships with mentors like Emmanuelle M., vice president in credit risk management at J.P. Morgan.

EMMANUELLE M.

vice president in credit risk management at J.P. Morgan “This programme is giving kids employable skills early on; important things that if you don't get early might stop you later in life.”

But the impact goes both ways: “As an employee, you feel like you’re part of something bigger, something that matters on a personal level,” she added.

The connections often spark energetic new plans for the future.

“The programme has given me loads of confidence,” Sabina A., a past student participant, said. “It’s been quite inspiring because people like me work with the team and learn from them how to get to where we want to be in the future.”

Learn more about how J.P. Morgan works with London communities.

We develop skilled volunteerism programs that leverage the strength of our employees to help non-profit organisations increase their positive impact.

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