Opening doors and backing potential - Aspect’s role in the Career Ready programme

At Aspect, we spend our working lives helping organisations think clearly about their purpose, their impact and the stories they tell the world. So, when the opportunity arose to get involved with Career Ready, a social mobility charity focused on giving young people fair access to careers support, guidance and real work experience, it felt like a natural fit.

That sense has only been reinforced by the charity’s newly published 2025 Scotland Impact Report, which offers a powerful snapshot of the difference Career Ready is making across Scotland. In the past year alone, the programme supported nearly 1,700 young people from more than 160 secondary schools. Even more compelling are the outcomes: 99% of alumni are in a positive destination a year after completing the programme, and almost all report increased confidence and clarity about their future careers. It’s an impressive achievement – and one we’re proud to be part of 

Our own involvement with Career Ready grew out of a simple but honest reflection. Like many agencies, we’ve always welcomed work experience students. But too often, those opportunities tend to go to young people who already know how to ask for them - through confidence, connections or schools with strong professional networks. Careers like communications and marketing can feel opaque, or even out of reach, to students who haven’t seen them up close.

We reached out to Career Ready to find out more. The more we learned, the clearer it became that this was a chance to do things differently – and better. Career Ready’s mission to support young people who might not otherwise have access to professional networks chimed strongly with our values, and with Aspect’s long-standing commitment to charitable involvement, including our recent and very rewarding partnership with Aberdeen Cyrenians.

How the programme works

Career Ready partners young people in S5 and S6 with volunteer mentors from a wide range of organisations, alongside structured skills workshops and a paid internship with the same employer. The programme runs for just over a year, with regular mentoring meetings - often monthly - typically hosted in the mentor’s workplace. It’s designed not just to build employability skills, but to gently demystify the world of work.

That structure was a big draw for us. Rather than a one-off week of work experience (which can be tricky to make meaningful in a busy agency environment), Career Ready allows relationships to develop over time. Young people get space to ask questions, gain confidence, and understand what different roles actually involve - not just in theory, but in practice.

Aspect’s role - and our people

This year, Aspect is supporting four mentees through the programme - three in Aberdeen and one in Edinburgh. Our mentors volunteered willingly, driven by a shared sense that this is a chance to make a genuine difference. The four mentors taking part are Olivia Bonner (marketing advisor), Gaby Beaton (communications advisor), Karen Grant (communication lead) and Leona Minellas (communication director) - a mix of experience levels and perspectives, but all with the same enthusiasm for helping young people find their feet.

The young people involved come from very different backgrounds, which is central to Career Ready’s impact. Some have recently moved to Scotland, others are at risk of disengaging from school, and many simply haven’t had exposure to the breadth of career options available to them. What they share is potential - and the need for someone outside their immediate circle to help them recognise it.

As mentors, we’re not there to tell anyone what career they should pursue. In fact, part of the value is helping young people rule things out as well as in. We talk about our own routes into work, the twists and turns along the way, and what working in communications and marketing really looks like day to day. Often, it’s the simple reassurance that creative careers can also be credible, stable and intellectually challenging that lands most powerfully.

Benefits on both sides

For the young people, the benefits are clear. They gain confidence, workplace skills, a professional network and - crucially - a four-week paid internship at the end of the programme. Career Ready’s impact data shows that experiences like this help 96% of interns feel better able to make informed career decisions, while the vast majority go on to sustained, positive destinations 

But Aspect benefits too. Mentoring sharpens listening, leadership and coaching skills. It reminds us why access and representation matter. And it brings fresh perspectives into our business - something every organisation benefits from.

Importantly, our participation represents a real commitment. It’s a significant investment of time, energy and resource, including paying interns fairly for their work. That feels right. If you’re going to support a programme like this, it needs to be done properly.