Skippers Volunteer Programme v0.2

I previously drafted an impact programme in 2022 and so far we’ve made little to no progress on it. 

I still want to try and help set a better example of how a business can have a positive social impact. In particular how a hospitality/tourism driven brand can make that impact.

But I need to be realistic vs. who we are, a still growing, not yet profitable new business…

Some of the challenges with tourism

Tourism can have amazing benefits for an economy or a local town. Helping create jobs and an influx of cash. Unfortunately, it has a few shortcomings.

Like a flower, tourism is extremely delicate. 

A destination that is popular today can at the whimsy of humanity, become a deserted town tomorrow. It relies on a stable government, bad actors being kept at bay and people’s ability to travel not being hindered. 

cc Inchka

Equally too many tourists can destroy even the most beautiful places on earth.

cc Bex Walton

In the last 20 years, we’ve seen several events have massive impacts on tourism. Most recently the global covid pandemic, and before that global recessions as well as instability around the world.

What we have done so far

We have talked to a few schools to understand their perceptions of IT and technology in the workplace. 

What we found in general, although over a very small sample was that the schools were in general not really aware of careers in tech nor were they aware of the role of technology in the modern workplace.

Furthermore some change needs to be effected at all levels, teachers, parents and students. With the first two being the likely highest impact.

What this has shown is that our first step of engagement really needs to be around awareness.

What we would like to do

From our initial work the highest impact lowest effort starting point is actually quite simple.

We want to start careers talks in local schools to help young people better understand different opportunities.

What does v0.2 look like at the moment?

There are a few things that are needed to make this work namely: 

  1. Build relationships with local primary and secondary schools
  2. Agree a timetable with the schools for careers talks
  3. Have some guests book into to give talks

Build relationships with schools

Our first effort has to be to build relationships with schools. That means headmasters, form heads and getting them to understand what we want to achieve.

Agree a timetable for careers talks

This should hopefully be relatively straightforwards once we have a contact we can work with at the school we can agree approximate timings.

Have some guests give talks

Once a guest has confirmed a booking we’ll reach out to them and ask them if they’d like to participate and book in some time at the schools who can accomodate.

Final thoughts

This plan is a little less ambitious than our v0.1 and I do want to revisit it. But it’s a lot more realistic given the resources we currently have available.

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