LONDON — Golin and sister IPG agency Virgo Health have launched a partnership with online student careers hub Your Game Plan, with the aim of reaching thousands of UK secondary school and college students and educating them about careers in PR and communications.

The agencies are the first communications firms to partner with the ed-tech platform, supporting its aim of bridging the gap between classroom and career, offering training to help young people from a wide range of backgrounds develop the skills and knowledge needed for employability, financial health and mental wellbeing.

As part of the partnership, Golin will create and sponsor a sector-specific “Introduction to careers in PR & communications” online course, with modules exploring the PR industry and explaining career paths.

The Your Game Plan e-learning platform is currently used by 1,100 secondary schools, 55% of colleges and 20 youth-focused charities across England. Founder Danny Heath said: “Young people across the UK don’t know how to translate their abilities into careers. Employers have careers but are failing to translate these into opportunities that attract young people from a broad range of backgrounds. We currently do not prepare young people for the step from education to independence and under-funded school careers programmes aren’t working.”

Golin and Virgo Health group managing director Ondine Whittington said: “We were immediately inspired by Danny and Your Game Plan as a ground-breaking start-up committed to driving change that really matters in our education system. Your Game Plan levels the playing field and removes barriers to careers, so we couldn’t think of a better platform to introduce our industry to young people.

“Our aim is to find exciting new talent from all different backgrounds interested in a career in communications and to ensure they are in a good position to secure a future job within our industry. Not only in this a great opportunity for us, but also for our clients who are already also seeing the potential in a partnership with this organisation.”

From those who complete the online programme, Golin and Virgo Health will invite up to six candidates to a five-week programme with Golin trainers, mentors and buddies to bolster their skills and help them develop a career in PR. The training will follow Golin’s new foundational training programme developed for junior new starters.

Heath, who set up Young Game Plan in 2019 after a career in media sales, said the idea had come from first-hand experience: “For various reasons university wasn’t for me, so when I left school I wanted to go straight into a career. However, information and careers education in my school was non-existent. To address this societal problem, I decided to create Your Game Plan.”

Of the partnership with the IPG agencies, Heath said: “Students looking for careers often know of traditional industries, such as law, medicine and accountancy, but there is a real lack of knowledge about exciting and equally rewarding careers in areas such as fintech, digital and of course, PR and comms. Golin is a hugely passionate and supportive partner and we can't wait to launch our 'Introduction to careers in PR & comms' training course alongside them. I look forward to seeing how they help students in our network enter the industry.”