Business Adviser - Wigan

What will you be doing?

Benefits to students

The company teams are ‘learning by doing’ – they benefit from the continuity of your experience and guidance in working as a team, solving business problems, communicating, planning, etc. It is their business, your role is to guide, advise, mentor and encourage them to reflect upon their learning and transfer newly-developed skills into new situations.

Benefits to volunteers

As well as the satisfaction derived from making a real contribution to helping young people achieve their potential, these opportunities can help develop your self-confidence in a new situation as well as useful skills such as facilitation, mentoring and communication. The experience of helping a young company develop and grow over several months, encountering and tackling a variety of real business issues, can be very rewarding indeed.

Time Commitment

These programmes run over an academic year, from Sept/Oct through to the end of the Spring Term, sometimes beyond. Teams that progress in the various competition elements can continue into June/July. Generally, your commitment would be to attend the weekly team meetings for at least one hour during term time (perhaps 20-25 meetings over the course of an academic year). These may be during the school day or run as extra-curricular activities.

Example Programmes

• Company Programme (13-19 year-olds in schools and colleges)
• Start-up Programme (students in universities and further education colleges)
• Team Programme (15-25+ year-olds with mild to moderate learning difficulties or disabilities).

What are we looking for?

Using your business/corporate experience to help students set up and run a successful business over an academic year. This involves mentoring, facilitation, instilling business acumen and encouraging them to overcome and learn from various challenges and setbacks. You work closely with one or more Centre Leads (usually teaching staff) and sometimes other volunteers. 

You will be a business owner or worked within a corporate environment with 3 years experience. 
Previous experience of business advice and mentoring is desirable but not essential.

What difference will you make?

We make the connection between education and the world of work, enabling young people to develop the knowledge and attitudes they need to succeed, building on eight key employability skills.

We believe that the potential of the UK’s young people is unlimited, and an academic education on its own is not enough. As a national charity we motivate young people to succeed in the changing world of work by equipping them with the work skills, knowledge and confidence they need.

Additional information

You can download the following documents:

Before you apply

Please apply through Reach in the first instance and we will get back to you and will be able to answer any questions you may have about the role. Candidates are then asked to complete our application on our Assemble Volunteering Platform. 

Thank you so much for your interest so far!

Glen Lewis

Area Manager