Meeting, planning, plotting…
On Saturday, co-founder Anna and I met up to plan our strategy for seeitbeit.org.uk, ably assisted by much tea, coffee, bits of paper, laptops, phones, and other assorted detritus.
About Anna.
Anna Burrows is a free-lance TV producer, and we’ve known each other for a VERY LONG TIME. She’s hugely knowledgeable about education, having worked on a number of TV shows exploring the subject, and also hugely knowledgeable about people – what makes them tick, what makes them want to engage, and what makes them feel confident they are supporting a worthwhile project. When we got together in December to make See it, Be it a reality, her boundless enthusiasm (and enormous address book!) were absolutely vital to our progress. As we’re both working mums, we relied on the kindness of family to give us this important few hours together to really get going with our vision for See it, Be it.
Where do you even begin?
We decided to begin by identifying the TEN JOBS most commonly named by children in the OECD’s PISA report – DOCTOR, TEACHER, VET, ENGINEER, POLICE OFFICER, LAWYER, DESIGNER, ICT, SPORTSPERSON and TRANSPORT. From there, we thought about all the peripheral jobs that go with these ‘umbrella’ careers and created mind-maps we could work from. The PISA report has given us an invaluable insight into aspirations for children globally; Andreas Schleicher is our dream dinner guest (girls can dream) and his studies have given so many people a true picture of the future of work for our children – and what we need to do to improve it. We are using the PISA data to inform so many of our decisions around See it, Be it , because it reflects the picture we see in schools across this country.
What’s next?
We decided to compile a list of people we could reach out to who have associations with these ‘Top Ten’ to help us spread the word about what we’re doing, and why, and to hopefully get more and more people to upload a video about their job. We came up with specific content for Twitter, Instagram, Linked-In and email to target these individuals and their industries. We want children to see the wealth of possibility out there – no matter their background, ability or gender identity.
Hard At Work.
We worked from 10.30am to 4.30pm non-stop on our ideas, goals, visions and plans – and came away from it all feeling really positive (and exhausted!), and ready to tackle the next challenge: engagement with corporations, and getting people to actually make videos for children to see and be inspired by. Please help us to realise this dream. Make a video. Five minutes out of your day could change a child’s future forever.