I started a ‘Women into Leadership’ programme at the Sixth Form Bolton five years ago. Why? Because I have always believed that the girls in our sixth form were disadvantaged in their preparation for next steps, and in particular for the ‘world of work’.
I saw so many young women working hard on their studies, but lacking the confidence and broader awareness to compete with their male peers in the workplace, for work experience placements and other opportunities. Since I was no longer as able to influence individual females in my classroom, as I no longer taught, I used my position and time to nurture, encourage and support our young women by setting up a college wide programme. And so our Women into Leadership programme was born. The programmes aim, much like the ethos of She Inspires, was to empower our young women to make better, different or more informed choices about their own development and futures. It also provided a safe environment where they could air their views and explore themes and topics important to them. A good example of this was the work our young women did on the safety of females on our streets, following the tragic murder of Sarah Everard in 2021. The young women interviewed a number of people and discussed their safety in a series of Podcasts, still available on Spotify.
The basic premise of the programme is to
- provide access to a wide range of people in business, who worked for charities or were entrepreneurs. They would share their own stories, give gems wisdom, insights, tips and advice and take questions and answers. Over the five years we have hosted local councillors, women from tech industries, CEO’s of charities, solicitors, clinical psychologists, people from the media, sport, the services and people from HE and education (HE being the typical but not exclusive next step for our learners)
- opportunities to undertake projects or work experience or attend conferences including a project completed for Heel Holdings
- opportunities to be coached and mentored
- social skills development largely through an opportunity to be in a social setting with women and men from the world of work at a luncheon or afternoon tea
- cultural opportunities such as a visit to a museum or theatre
- development of essential digital skills including an annual Women into computing tech and digital event’ supported by as many as 20 organisations throughout the day
- workshop sessions based around health, well-being, finance and fitness
We always hold a launch event which means our young women come together within the first month of joining the college. This is the start of building a community which can support each other and see the value of supporting each other. The other events are spaced throughout the year and advertised internally to encourage our young women to attend as much as they are able and to thrive in the brilliant community.
Gulnaz Brennan has always supported our programme and as well as delivering an inspiring talk has enabled our learners to undertake work experience at the Bolton food festival, act as journalists to report on events and undertake work experience at the She Inspires annual awards dinner. The experiences on offer have often been a catalyst for many young women to not only develop essential skills but to see the value of getting more involved with available opportunities. I see many former students on LinkedIn and it’s a joy to see them thriving and progressing.
The She Inspires Awards have afforded the sixth form college the opportunity to nominate students (and staff) for the various awards available. George Platt became an Orange Ambassador and I love seeing her continued progress at the University of Lancaster and the work she does on university radio up there. Nominating our young women and seeing their faces when they are shortlisted to attend the awards is such a joy and privilege. Seeing Lexie Leake win the 2024 award for Young Achiever was a genuine joy. She is a young lady who was overcome so much adversity to advance herself in order to meet her personal goals. The staff who supported her at the college demonstrated just how much they value and nurture our girls and encourage them to fulfil their dreams.
The Women into Leadership Programme goes from strength to strength and the baton for its success has been passed to Annabel Jackson who is doing a fantastic job of developing it even further. If you feel you would you have something you might like to offer to the programme then please do get in touch with her aJackson@bolton-sfc.ac.uk
My final point? Sadly in todays world, though much has improved for women, there still remain more barriers and prejudices when it comes to building a career. I started the programme to make sure that young women know this, and are therefore better prepared for their futures and to have the skills and experiences to remove those barriers to their individual and collective successes. I will be continuing to support the programme now that I have retired from the sixth form as I genuinely believe in what I started.
Sandra McManus
Just a footnote we also support our male learners with a programme called Prosper that develops a wholly different set of skills and experiences that support young men in their futures