The BBC’s landmark centenary education project, BBC 100 Share Your Story, resumes today in schools across the UK. The project aims to inspire young people to achieve their career goals and help realise their ambitions.

A new survey for BBC Children’s & Education suggests that more than 7 out of 10 (71%) 12-18 year olds would like more advice and support to help them decide on the next steps towards their future career.

The majority of those surveyed felt positive (60%) and confident (65%) about their future, although 42% believed that the careers support they received from their school or college had reduced since the Coronavirus pandemic. And 38% said they missed out on work experience placements due to the pandemic.

The research comes as the BBC’s landmark centenary education project, BBC 100 Share Your Story, resumes today in schools across the UK. The project aims to inspire young people to achieve their career goals and help realise their ambitions.

More than 2000 face-to-face storytelling and careers sessions will be delivered in over 700 school visits across the next 15 weeks. The tour will reach up to 10,000 students each day and over 400,000 teenagers by the end of the BBC’s centenary year.

A total of 35 BBC presenters, 150 BBC staff storytellers, 300 career panellists and 100 BBC stars will take part in the sessions. Some of the famous faces visiting their former secondary schools or schools in their local area to share their stories, include:

Celeste in Brighton
Dean McCullough in Belfast
Edith Bowman in Fife
Graham Norton in London
Marli Siu in Moray
Owain Wyn Evans in Carmarthenshire
Rakie Ayola in Cardiff
Roman Kemp in Camden
Sam Quek in Liverpool
Ugo Monye in Islington

Edith Bowman, who will be visiting her former school in Fife on 16 September, says: “I’m so excited to be heading back to my old school for BBC 100 Share Your Story. I feel really fortunate to have a job that I absolutely love and I don’t think I’d have believed that all these incredible opportunities would come my way when I was at school. It really is so important that young people see that any career is possible for them, no matter where they’re from.”

James Stirling, BBC 100 Executive Editor, adds: “It’s encouraging to see young people feeling positive about their futures after a challenging few years. However, nearly three-quarters say they want more support and advice to help them with their next steps.

“The BBC 100 Share Your Story school tour will help provide young people with the practical support they’re asking for, as well as inspiring a generation of storytellers during the BBC’s centenary year.”

The tour, produced by BBC Children’s & Education, commenced earlier this year and received excellent feedback from both students and teachers.

Ahead of the visits, teachers are offered training to deliver storytelling workshops to students from BBC literacy and educational charity partners the National Literacy Trust and Voice 21.

Into Film, supported by the BFI using National Lottery funding, is also providing hands on training to help students take their story from the page to the screen and BFI Film Academy Alumni will participate in the sessions.

Additionally, The BBC is bringing Share Your Story to four key international bureaux – India, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania and the USA. Global BBC ambassadors are visiting a total of 21 schools in 9 languages (Swahili, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Marathi, Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati, English). They will share their inspirational stories and hear stories from the students themselves.

BBC Share Your Career Story

The new research also indicates that 66% of young people would like to know more local career options and 65% want to find out about potential roles available to them across the UK.

To support students’ desire for more information to support their career choices, following the Share Your Story sessions, the BBC will revisit schools to deliver specialist career panel events.

Each panel will be delivered in partnership with local BBC radio stations and include a BBC staff member plus two panellists from the local community whose work benefits or includes storytelling.

The vast majority of students surveyed (79%) said they should get advice and support from school. The career panels will support schools by highlighting the range of career opportunities in storytelling at the BBC and the creative industries, both locally and across the UK, including the BBC’s new talent schemes and apprenticeships.

Further careers support

The BBC’s careers support for students doesn’t end with the school tour; students will be directed to the BBC Bitesize Careers site, where they will find an ever-growing library of job profiles to explore across all industries, alongside careers advice and information about next steps in education and the world of work.

All schools in the UK will also have access to Share Your Story resources on BBC Teach, enabling teachers to put on their own BBC 100 Share your Story events.

And students will find out how to carry on their storytelling journey with BBC Young Reporter. Over 100 stories from young people will be featured by the BBC on TV, Radio and Online in 2022.

Notes to editors

Survey conducted by Survation on behalf of BBC Children’s & Education. 2,086 respondents aged 12-18 across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Full survey results will be available on the Survation website.

The findings are supported by research undertaken by BFI and ERIC in June 2022, which showed that a significant gap in careers advice is a major block for new entrants to the screen industries.

The BBC is to double its commitment to apprenticeships as part of its Across the UK plan. A thousand apprentices will be recruited by 2026 and 80% will be based outside London. Earlier this year, the BBC announced that a new Apprentice Hub will open in Birmingham.