Brixton Finishing School teams up with WPP and KFC for nationwide schools program

What does the campaign involve?

• Past graduates from Brixton Finishing School, members of the Common People professional network and other supporters of the creative sector will return to schools to deliver special assemblies highlighting opportunities in the creative industries.

• Students interested in learning more will be invited to join ADventurers, a community offering career development tips and learning material.

• Brixton Finishing School says the campaign aims to reach 100,000 pupils aged 14-18 from underrepresented backgrounds.

• Yasmin Arrigo, non-executive director and writer-in-residence of Brixton Finishing School, said: “Each year, our students tell us that they wished they’d known about the industry when they were at school. We want to kickstart that awareness early, at a point when young people first start to consider their career choices, and to highlight how multi-faceted this dynamic industry is. Whether you’re the class chatterbox always being told to be quiet, or a secret mathlete, whatever you’re into, wherever your passions lie, there’s a job for you.”

Why has it been launched now?

• In the UK, opportunities for young people to join the creative industries without participating in higher education are increasingly limited. The Watford Course, run by famed adland educator Tony Cullingham, closed down recently.

• Founder of Brixton Finishing School Ally Owen said: “It can feel easier to locate and enter Hogwarts than the ad industry – the route in can be as mythical as Platform 9 ¾, which only reveals itself to the chosen few a couple of times a year. ADventure works to resolve this, creating much-needed awareness, a clear pathway to success and a community of fellow ‘ADventurers’ who will enjoy enriching encounters and content from our partners so when they are of an age to enter The AD-Cademy or Brixton Finishing School they know it’s a place built for them, to help them win a role.

• “Rewiring our future talent pipeline is an urgent (and long-term) project. ADventure is the first step on this new pathway and is designed to support dismantling inequitable legacy routes in. By building out a ‘family’ of programs designed to deliver access based on merit, Brixton Finishing School aims to rewrite the talent blueprint for the industry so it’s representative of the consumers it serves.”

• Jed Hallam, founder of Common People, said: “The volume of Common People in our industry continues to decline, and this represents a huge challenge as we look to reignite the creativity that once made the UK the creative center of excellence for the advertising world. A diverse workforce will go a long way to addressing that challenge, and that‘s why ADventure is such an incredibly important initiative from Brixton Finishing School.

• “We‘re asked to think about our careers from an incredibly young age, and if the creative industries don’t feature in those thoughts (either prompted or not), adland runs the risk of losing out on a huge amount of talented Common People.”

How can you help?

• If you’re interested in joining the program and helping encourage state school pupils to consider advertising as a career, you can sign up here.

• Schools interested in participating can sign up here.