Northern Ireland’s business community is coming together to support the delivery of industry-led careers inspiration events across the province, engaging almost 7,500 Year 9 pupils in June 2022.

4C UR Future LIVE is an innovative and fast-paced event that uses skills games and work-based challenges, designed and delivered in collaboration with local employers, to help young people get an insight into the future world of work.

Following a successful pilot in 2019, the initiative, which aims to help every participant make more informed education and career choices, is taking the show on the road this year delivering an at-scale pilot of one event in every council area in June.

Managing Director of the social enterprise, Rachel Doherty, acknowledges the support of the local business community in enabling the events to scale:

“4C UR Future’s work would not be possible without the support of our member companies, who recognise the significant opportunities that come from working together collaboratively, and at-scale, to tackle systemic problems; helping our young people discover their own attributes, strengths, and interests, and exploring how these might align with their future opportunities.”

“The careers landscape has become increasingly complex for young people and parents to navigate, with new in-demand skills, new types of jobs, and entirely new sectors emerging, resulting in major bottlenecks in the skills pipeline; inhibiting our local businesses from growing.”

“By working across all of the key employment sectors in Northern Ireland, 4C UR Future leverage and mobilise the skills and industry expertise available on our doorstep.”

The LIVE events are funded and resourced by the Northern Ireland business community and are hosted with support from ten councils. The events are free to schools, including free transport, which is being supported by Translink.

Charlotte Richardson, PR Manager at Translink, said:

“We’re delighted to be able to support this fantastic series of events, which are taking place across Northern Ireland; investing in our young people and building confidence, skills, and knowledge to help them identify the many opportunities and the wide variety of career paths and industries open to them. Access to events like this is vital to the next generation and to the workforce of the future and we’re proud to be a member of 4C UR Future.”

4C UR Future member companies represent all of the key employment sectors in Northern Ireland, with Belfast-based electrical and mechanical engineering company, PAC Group, on board to support the 2022 events.

Darren Leslie, Business Development Director at PAC Group, said:

“4C UR Future LIVE is a fantastic concept. The gamification of careers at the events will engage and inspire young people, critically before they make their GCSE choices, helping them to identify their strengths and talents. We’re thrilled to be supporting a game at the event called ‘Escape Room’, which features problem solving tasks and a codebreaker game.”

“4C UR Future provide a great framework and method through which employers can get involved collectively to help young people identify and achieve their ambitions. We’re really looking forward to meeting NI’s future engineering talent at the events across the province.”

It’s not too late for local businesses to get involved! For more information on 4C UR Future, go to: www.4curfuture.com, or email info@4curfuture.com.