CHILDREN at two Weymouth schools were visited by Education and Employers, a charity that aims to inspire and motivate young people to achieve their potential.

Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School hosted a Primary Futures event on April 3 and All Saints Church of England School held a speed networking event for 180 children the following day. This was part of the Inspiring Dorset campaign.

More than 50 volunteers from a wide range of companies across Dorset came into the schools to share the stories of their career journeys with the children.

The Inspiring Dorset campaign is being run in conjunction with Dorset Council, Southern Universities Network (SUN), Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC).

Matt Prosser, The Chief Executive of Dorset Council said: “This is a really important event for the young people here today. A chance to meet with a range of businesses, for them to start thinking about what kind of jobs they want to do.

"For me, it is crucial to be at events like this and for Dorset Council to be seen as supporting the young people of Dorset. This event was about bringing young people and businesses together. To find out what they could think about doing as their career.

"My opportunity to be here was to promote young people being involved in Dorset. Staying here in Dorset and creating their futures here.”

At both events head teachers from other local schools were welcomed and have now signed up to the Inspiring Dorset programme and plan to hold events in the summer term.

Fiona Daykin, Head Teacher at Holy Trinity, said: "It's about inspiring children to think beyond their boundaries and to see possibilities and opportunities out in the world for them that they may not even know exist.

"We know that the world changes so rapidly and a lot of the jobs that are around today won't actually be the jobs that are there in the children's future. We're trying to teach the children to be resilient, to be able to embrace change and to look for every opportunity."

Charlotte Thurston, Head of Schools Engagement at Education and Employers, said: “It was fantastic to see so many volunteers prepared to donate their time so freely to help inspire local school children and so rewarding to see how engaged and interested the children were at both schools.

"The campaign will continue into the summer term when it is hoped even more schools and volunteers will register via the Inspiring the Future website to ensure more local children have a line of sight to the world of work.”