Uni Genius 2024

Project Report | Nov 4, 2024
GENERATING Genius report

By Tony Sewell | Project leader

We are very pleased with the national impact Generating Genius had for students from low-income households. We achieved the goals that we set.

Our goals were as follows:

Goal one: Provide more mock assessment centre and application process bootcamp opportunities with businesses so that our university age students can get the chance to practise for the competitive graduate and internship processes.

Goal two: Continue to provide the same number of work experiences as last year (173 placements) or more, to our sixth formers, with a range of different companies.

Goal three: Host our first Generating Genius Conference and STEM Challenge Competition awards. We hosted this in November and launched the STEM challenge competitions in July for students to work on over the summer. Thank you to National Grid for designing the Engineering challenge competition and HSBC for designing the Technology one.

Goal four: Find more businesses to provide paid internships to our students.

Goal five: Obtain more video and written testimonials from students, parents/guardians, teachers and businesses to showcase to current and new funders so they can understand the impact Generating Genius has so that we can continue to provide our programmes.

Please see key successes and goals we want to achieve in 2025 below from the different age groups on Generating Genius.

Junior Genius Network (13 to 16 years old)

Junior Genius Scholars Programme - This programme is for high potential students that are predicted top GCSE grades in STEM who are from very low-income households. All students are on free school meals or are from very low-income households. These students are nominated by our partner schools.

We brought on 18 scholars to the programme from Newcastle, Birmingham, Brighton, Basingstoke and London. We successfully delivered a STEM Masterclass day at Cambridge University and motivated all scholars to participate in their STEM Essay competition. In 2024 they will have an Easter work experience with days hosted by Barings and Tech Academia, and they will then have a STEM Summer school which will be delivered by STEM academics and Salesforce. Students will also participate in a STEM academic presentation at the House of Lords. They will deliver these presentations at their programme networking event to their parents, guardians and some of our business partners.

STEM Like US Programme - This two-year programme takes place in school time, at schools from across the country whose students are mainly from low-income households. It also has a focus on working with schools outside of London/Greater London where there are far less charitable initiatives supporting young people with employability, upskilling and knowledge. The programme is for students with an interest in STEM. It showcases to them the exciting world of studying STEM and utilising STEM skills in other areas. It does this through providing them with structured career mentoring sessions with university students or industry professionals, STEM in Action Days, Insight talks, Careers & Employability Workshops and a Career Essay writing competition.

In 2024 we worked with 8 schools for up to 25 students per school, on year one of their two-year STEM Like Us programme and also 8 schools for up to 25 students per school, on year two of their programme. The programme was very impactful with students asking for more mentoring sessions in some schools and teachers relaying that they noticed a greater drive in some of their students who previously lacked motivation. Due to the popularity of the programme in our current schools our aim for next year is to receive funding to expand the programme for the 2024-2025 academic year to include four more schools. We also wish to provide students with more industry and employability upskilling via competitions where they have to complete tasks. We are hoping to also raise funding to do this in a gamified way and raise funding for a platform.

Thank you to the Hadley Trust for supporting us with this impactful programme and for utilising your own connections to introduce volunteers to be part of the STEM Like Us Programme. These volunteers have been particularly committed and support two mentoring cohorts per academic year.

Post 16 Genius Network (16 to 18 years old)

We are pleased that we achieved our aim of maintaining or increasing the number of work experience places provided. This year we provided 185 work experience placements which is up from the previous year when we provided 173 placements.

Work Experience Placements were provided in the following sectors:

- Energy

- Environmental Science

- Finance

- Investment Management

- Patent Law

- Technology

These experiences are crucial for our students to develop exposure, experience and self-confidence in their own abilities in order to achieve their full potential.

We were also able to provide a new Work Ready programme, as part of our employability skills offering, to our 16 to 18-year-old students. This programme is centred around careers advice, skills and confidence building.

Most of the parents and guardians of our students are not in these top jobs which our students most definitely have the ability to get into. Our work experiences and the Work Ready programme is critical to them gaining the skills and the advice needed to fulfil their potential.

Our STEM@Oxford Programme, run in partnership with Oriel College, University of Oxford, and our STEM@Cambridge programme, sponsored by St John's College, Cambridge, with the mentoring part of the programme sponsored by Salesforce, proved very successful. We had 12 out of our 80 students from our STEM@Oxford and STEM@Cambridge programmes entered Oxbridge which is a 15% success rate with other students successfully entering good Russell Group universities.

For 2024, our goal for this area is to continue to deliver to a high standard on our existing work experience programmes, Work Ready programme and Oxbridge preparation programmes as well as looking at how we can further build in more one-to-one coaching for our students around careers advice and university and apprenticeship applications.

Future Talent Genius (18 to 25 years old)

We are very pleased to have been able to offer 68 paid internship opportunities to our students. We were also very pleased that a further 92 students reported to us that they received internship roles at partnership companies and other companies. We also had a further 71 students reporting to us that they received graduate roles at partnership companies and other companies. Many students reporting this to us, informed us that our Get Hired Programmes, run with our partner companies, and application preparation mentoring programmes, contributed to their success in getting these roles.

For 2024/ 2025 we have set the goal to provide, in partnership with businesses. the same amount or more internship opportunities exclusively for our students. We also hope to increase the number of students receiving internship and graduate job offers and then continue to steadily increase, working alongside our business partners, the number getting into roles at their companies. Companies where students have received graduate roles include Circana, National Grid, and Google.

Thank you to our Generating Genius university students and working alumni for your support in delivering engaging workshops, and mentoring younger students in your areas of expertise. Thank you to our funders and individual supporters for your support both in time, supporting students and financially. Please help us in the future.

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Jul 12, 2024
Uni Genius Black women into tech report

By Tony Sewell | Black women into tech

Black Women into Tech & Data Programme Introduction

About the programme:

The “Black Women into Tech & Data” 9-month training and career development programme is run by leading STEM charity, Generating Genius, and top multinational Technology and Data Companies. It is designed to support students in their exploration of exciting careers in the Technology and Data Space, as well as give them the skills needed in this space and help them get further relevant experience via internships, placements, and graduate jobs.

The programme provides students with opportunities to learn key soft skills and technical skills needed for a career in Technology.

Students are encouraged to Discover new knowledge around careers in technology and data, Prepare for the next steps in their career, and Upskill to support greatest success.

We do this via 4 main programme pillars:

1. Professional Networking – Providing opportunities to build meaningful connections with leading Technology firms through mentoring and networking.

2. Industry Experience – All students have the opportunity to attend an insight week run by one of our partner companies. This gives students the opportunity to discover more about technology and data careers, upskill both on their soft skills and technical skills via workshops and a hands-on project, and network with professionals at the company at all levels and learn more. Students have the opportunity to apply and interview for exclusive 6-week paid internships in Technology and Data with some of our partner companies.

3. Job Preparation – Through engaging workshops led by our business partners and Generating Genius alongside the 12-week one-to-one mentoring programme. Students develop relevant soft and technical skills needed for the workplace in technology and data but also useful for other careers. Soft skills, such as leadership and communication, very much needed in the workplace, are developed through our year 10 give back mentoring programme where our older students mentor younger students interested in careers in Technology.

4. Like Minded Community – Students engage in the programme alongside a number of like-minded peers and professionals. As well as this, students have a dedicated small group project Technology and Data competition over the summer which really helps them bond and network over a common goals.

This has been a fantastic programme and the students have fed back saying they are now much more confident in making applications to Tech companies and doing Tech related courses.

The creation of Technology projects in showcasing your skillset is so important as part of being employable in Tech and often is what makes candidates stand out. We have found that not all of our students are aware of this. We want to give our students an opportunity to start really developing their Tech portfolio and get into the habit of working on projects in their own time to showcase. Students had the opportunity to create their own Technology Innovation project and upload this to their Github pages as well as create a short presentation about their project. Mid way through creation they had the chance to get feedback and support from Technology Company representatives. They then had their project reviewed and presented this back to a panel of judges and Technology representatives from different companies at the Presentation Day and Networking Event.

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Mar 1, 2024
Uni Genius

By Tony Sewell | Uni Genius

Uni-genius supporting low income students towards equal opportunity in STEM

The key successes from last year on Post 16 Genius have been students receiving fantastic work experience opportunities and performing really well during them. We were able to offer 132 work experience placements last year, for our Year 12 and 13 students, over the summer holidays. Thank you to HSBC, National Grid, GHO Capital, Circana and Coller Capital for offering these fantastic placements for our students. The feedback on students' performance, engagement and delivery of their work experience projects was exceptionally high this year with many partners stating that the students they had were some of the best they have ever had. We also have had a brilliant total of 46 applications to Oxford and Cambridge from students on both our STEM@Oxford and STEM@Cambridge programmes. We look forward to providing you an update in March after we have caught up with students in February. We also look forward, in March, to sharing with you the other fantastic institutions which students have applied to.

We have had a successful launch event of the Junior Genius Scholars Programme, as well as a wonderful Dream Careers Essay Competition. Both the parents, guardians and students attended the programme launch at St John's College, University of Cambridge. The students and parents participated in induction activities, a Robotics STEM Masterclass, and attended a Studying in STEM panel from students at Cambridge University. There was also a tour of St John's College and other key parts of Cambridge University. It was great to have both students, parents and guardians participating in all activities, particularly in the Robotics class. We have found that once you get the parents and guardians on board, and invested in our programmes, the students really shine as the parents understand the impact and value of the programmes too.

Last year was a brilliant year for our school's programme, Pay it Forward, and the first term of this academic year on the programme got off to a great start. We have completed all of the year 11 Career Development Workshops in our schools. The schools in the year 11 cohort are in a variety of locations nationwide such as Wolverhampton, Durham, and Newcastle. We have completed the Career Mentoring Programme and STEM in Action Day for one of our year 10 schools Sandhill View school in Sunderland and have begun Career Mentoring at Dukes Academy in Northumberland and Ark Alexander in Hastings. The Mentoring Programme has proven to be the most impactful part of the programme for the students and also was very beneficial for mentors who participated in it to develop management, communication, and planning skills. Last year the programme was also able to increase its impact due to the generous donation of the programme's sole funder, the Hadley Trust. The programme was able to increase its support from four schools to eight schools in England as well the amount of support we provide. We have now added on more support to this programme by providing an additional Career Development Workshop and Mentoring Day in the summer term of year 10 as well as engaging summer challenges to compliment the final Career Development Workshop day in year 11.

Thank you to all of our partners and supporters last year for your generous time and donations towards our programmes. We look forward to continuing to make an impact via our programmes with you this year.

Last year we delivered year two of five of the HSBC Future Genius programme alongside HSBC Digital Business Services. This programme is for 54 students. The programme aims to upskill students with the key employability skills needed for the future of work. A big focus is on digital and technology skills, which are now needed in every job, as well as commercial awareness of different industries, presentation skills, teamwork, career advice and discovery and job application process preparation. The end of the second year of the programme also marks the end of the core programme. The students started the core programme at the beginning of year 12 and completed it when they finished school in year 13. The second year of the programme consisted of a summer work experience, networking events and a programme graduation. This year's summer work experience was all about commercial awareness where students worked independently on a research project in their first preference business areas from Legal through to Cyber Security, as well as attending workshops and shadowing in these areas. The programme graduation and awards were a highlight of this year, particularly the student speeches where the programmes three top performers shared what they learned and advice for themselves and the whole cohort as they entered university and their next steps.

The students have now gone to university and graduated onto the three-year alumni programme. The alumni programme activity has begun with a 12-week programme where students are given a mentor from HSBC departments that align closely with their career interests or have been assigned a mentor from another company or organisation that better aligns with what they want to do. The mentoring programme includes four one to one mentoring sessions as well three employability skills masterclasses. The aim of the mentoring programme and masterclasses is to support students with career advice, how to find and source internships and work experience, as well as upskilling on how to be successful with these job application processes.

Generating Genius Conference and Awards Ceremony at the House of Lords

One of the key highlights for Generating Genius students, partners, supporters, and our team, was our inaugural Conference and Awards. From engaging panels exploring 'How to Generate Genius for the future economy' to compelling presentations by our talented Engineering and Technology student award winners, the day was a testament to the power of collective brilliance. The student debate which explored solutions to climate change brought a vital perspective to the ongoing conversation about shaping our future. We not only celebrated the exceptional achievements of brilliant minds but also fostered a sense of community. The student presentations and academic posters showcased the incredible talent that our organisation is privileged to support.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our students, supporters, and sponsors at the National Grid, AKO Capital, The Hadley Trust, Salesforce, HSBC, and Barings. Your invaluable contributions as panellists, keynote speakers, awards presenters, and attendees played a pivotal role in making this event a resounding success.

We have now reflected on the success and ways we can make this event better and are looking forward to hopefully more of you joining us for this year’s conference and awards.

We need your support so we can reach wider across the regions of the UK.

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