APM Challenge – supporting the Teenage Helpline

Markets

Defense 
Location

National
Client

Teenage Helpline

Paul Johnson

Delivery Director, Aerospace, Defence, Security and Technology, Bristol, United Kingdom contact form+44 1454 66 2683

A team of our apprentices and graduates helped the youth focussed charity, Teenage Helpline, to develop a Professional Development Training Syllabus (PDTS) that supports the workplace growth of its volunteers.

One in six children aged five to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2021, up from one in nine in 2017. The Teenage Helpline (THL) charity provides peer-led advice and help to young people on issues including mental health, relationships, education, life skills and career development. Led with a youth focus, to ensure it stays in touch with what young people want and need, it provides supportive peer-to-peer mentoring. THL is on track to support 5000 young people during its first three years of operation.

A fledgling charity that is experiencing rapid growth, THL needed to ensure that its volunteers were being offered opportunities for professional growth, both to enable personal progression, and to support the young people it helps.

Team Fusion (TF) has been a pleasure to work with; through our ongoing collaboration, we’ve felt like they got to the heart of what we needed. We’re extremely impressed with the quality of the PDTS and appreciate the considerable time and effort TF has put in over the previous months. This project has been a ‘win-win’ for us and will hugely benefit our valued volunteers for a long time to come.

Joshua Towers

Teenage Helpline CEO

The Solution

A team of Atkins’ apprentices and graduates – ‘Team Fusion’ delivered an eight-month project for THL that provided the charity with a PDTS for its volunteers.

A discussion with THL CEO, Josh Towers, highlighted that he wanted to give back to the many volunteers who donate their time to the charity, providing training that would contribute to their professional development. As most of the volunteers are aged between 18 and 25, the apprentices and graduates were able to draw upon first hand experiences to design and deliver a programme to support them.

Inspired by the activities on their Atkins’ Young Professional scheme, Team Fusion devised a syllabus that covered three key topics: entering the workforce; joining the workforce; and money management. Within these topics, diverse subject matter included job-hunting, CV preparation, personal branding, networking, listening, budgeting, debt and work-life balance.

Paul Johnson, Project Sponsor said: “THL helps young people in the UK that feel they have nowhere else to turn, or those that lack people their own age with whom to discuss their worries. Mental health is a particular concern at present, with 54% of the cases Teenage Helpline received this year related to mental health topics. By providing a structured professional development syllabus for the charity’s volunteers, we’re helping them deliver the charity’s mission: a safe space and mentoring that helps young people achieve their best potential.”

I joined Atkins and signed up to the APM challenge within my first few weeks, without any previous project management experience. The APM challenge helped me to gain many key project management skills – not just the theory, but the application too

Sam Lingard

project team member

The Result

The PDTS training syllabus was delivered through a combination of theoretical and practical sessions, with recorded workshops with subject matter experts offering opportunities for interaction, including questions and answers; while accompanying written guidance included draft templates for activities such as CV writing. User feedback was extremely positive, describing increased understanding and confidence as a result of the delivery and content. The sessions and materials will be used with its new volunteers in years to come.

THL was extremely impressed with the quality of the PDTS, which will help support the charity as it develops young people through volunteering opportunities, training, and positive experiences. THL’s volunteers will also be able to share their learning with helpline users, upskilling them and opening up additional opportunities to a wider audience.

In addition to benefiting the THL charity, the team – consisting of Nicander White, Sam Lingard, Joe Shepherd, Rhys Morris and Charlie O'Brien, and supported by Finola Eddon and Emily Snook (mentors) and Paul Johnson (project sponsor) – won first prize for their project at the Association for Project Management’s (APM’s) eighth South Wales and West of England (SWWE) Project Management Challenge Competition. Details of this annual competition, which launches each October, can be found on the APM website.

Team member, Nicander White, said: “Having a blend of apprentices and graduates on the team was really successful – we were able to use our combined knowledge and experience to work together to deliver support to THL. We were also grateful to our mentors and sponsor, Emily Snook, Finola Eddon and Paul Johnson, who provided not only their own project and subject expertise, but also signposted us to others with experience that could help us enhance the THL volunteers’ syllabus.”

APM Challenge – supporting the Teenage Helpline

Paul Johnson

The Solution

The Result

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