The Island’s MP, Andrew Turner, recently hosted an event at Westminster for Young Chamber UK.
Young Chamber was founded on the Isle of Wight in 2001 with the vision of connecting young people, between the ages of 11 – 19, directly with local businesses and employers. In fact, over the last four years, Young Chamber has enabled 336,516 students from over 300 schools across the country to participate in an enterprise activity, supported by 11,500 businesses.
The event was designed to increase awareness, nationally, of this very successful organisation. Kevin Smith, Chief Executive of Young Chamber UK, welcomed attendees and spoke with great passion about what had been achieved so far. He went on to explain what more could be achieved with the involvement of more businesses and schools in more areas across the UK.
Kevin Smith said :
“The event was a great success highlighting the importance of our work in helping young people to prepare themselves for the world of work. The aim of this event was to gain commitment from some of the UK’s top companies in support of Young Chamber development, and attendance included representatives from Experian, Carillion, BT, Unilver and Lloyds TSB, who are fast becoming very aware of the great work we have done to date and how they can support Young Chamber UK to provide even more opportunities to the majority of young people up and down the country.”
There were a number of interesting speakers, including keynote speaker, Terry Morgan CBE, Chairman of Crossrail also Dr Anthony Mann, Research Director, Education & Employers Taskforce.
Andrew Turner said of the event:
“I am very impressed with what the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce has done in creating and promoting Young Chamber and it was interesting to learn from one of the speakers, Dr. Anthony Mann, that recent research demonstrated that four or more experiences with local businesses meant that young adults were five times more likely to be in employment, education or training after leaving school.”
The event was attended by business representatives and MPs, including Mark Prisk, Minister for Business and Enterprise who said;
\”The Isle of Wight Young Chamber has grown from a small, local initiative to become an impressive national organisation benefitting thousands of young people. I am encouraged to see the valuable experience and contacts that the organisation is able to provide to help its members prepare for the world of work. I congratulate the local Chamber of Commerce for their continuing success and growth of Young Chamber and wish them further success in the future.\”
The Right Honourable Stephen Timms MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Employment also attended the event.
ENDS
Contacts : Michelle Russell – michelle.russell@youngchamber.com or
Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808
The Young Chamber UK website address is: www.youngchamber.com.
