Inspiring the Forest is an aspirational project to create career change in the Forest of Dean District. This is the lead project for the Education & Skills subgroup.
The project aims to raise career aspirations amongst young people, their parents and their teachers across the Forest of Dean; Raise awareness of the eclectic mix of businesses in the area and of the types of jobs available and increase awareness of the skills required for jobs locally at all levels from apprentices to senior managers.
Research proves that if you can’t see it, you can’t be it, so we want to showcase what opportunities the Forest of Dean has to offer.
Inspiring the Forest addresses issues and needs raised in the Education & Skills Sub-group discussions, including:
- Raising aspirations amongst the young, parents, and generally across the Forest of Dean.
- Raising awareness of the businesses in the District and of the types of jobs available.
- Increasing awareness of the skills required for jobs locally at all levels, from apprentices to managers.
- Creating close links between schools/colleges/universities and business both organisationally and individually.
- Reducing youth disaffection by applying the 4 business touch principles within mainstream education. (Those who have met businesses 4 times in their school career are 80+% more likely to continue in rewarding training/work)
- Reducing difficulties around arranging work experience and other business-school engagements required by best practice. And going beyond the minimum required.
- Engaging the voice and views of the young people who live in the District.
- Raising awareness of B2B potential & assisting businesses to manage their talent pipeline.
Under the Inspiring the Forest umbrella we have ran a number of targeted projects for schools & their students, including the Inspiring Women of the Forest campaign for International Women's Day 2025 and the Inspiring the Forest Career Fair, a unique style of event that ensured students had meaningful experiences at each 'career' stand.