At F4S, we harness the power of AI and the private sector to support teachers, students, small businesses, and charities. Through our skilled volunteering programs, we enable partners’ employees to mentor and support others in a manageable and flexible manner. Thousands of volunteers from companies of all sizes across the UK and the world participate, engaging with beneficiaries through one-on-one or small group interactions, sharing their knowledge, expertise, and passion. They make a positive impact in their communities, gain valuable skills, and find inspiration from the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners. Real-time tracking of their impact and feedback from mentees further enhance their experience.
Since our foundation 11 years ago, Founders4Schools (F4S) has made significant strides, facilitating millions of encounters that have benefitted more than 600,000 individuals who work at a small business, teach at a school or study full-time. In today’s world, delivering social impact has become increasingly vital for corporations. Investors value it, employees demand it, and customers seek businesses that prioritise social good.
We are grateful for the contributions of our volunteers, experts, and their invaluable time, knowledge, and career insights. A special thanks go to our individual donors and corporate partners, whose generous donations and grants enable us to sustain our dedicated team of staff and contractors. Additionally, I express deep gratitude for the unwavering support and guidance provided by F4S Trustees, Advisors, and colleagues. In these challenging times, I appreciate the resilience of my colleagues and the steadfast support of our partners, teachers, and businesses. We remain united and encouraged by the impact of our work in bridging the global skills gap and are committed to advancing this mission further.
Sherry Coutu CBE
Chair
Help us today to ensure we can continue to inspire and engage young people as they enter into an incredibly challenging job market.
"Using F4S helps our students to relate to the working world and brings their subjects to life. It also helps them to realise the skills that are needed for the working world."
- Teacher at Kingsthorpe College
Want to know more about F4S?
Our People
Our Trustees, Leadership Team
and Advisory Council.
Our Impact
Discover how we make an impact on the
future career choices of young people.
Our Partners
Working together to build brighter
futures for young people.
Our Mission
We have a passion for improving the
employability of young people.
Our Blog
Keep up to date with all our latest news,
events and F4S in the news.
Our Awards
Our work has been recognised
by various bodies over the years.
So how does it work?
Easy for educators
Simply search your location and we’ll show you business leaders, local or across the UK depending on what you need. Apply filters such as gender or industry to find your perfect match. Once you’ve selected business role models to invite simply choose your dates, sign up and leave the rest to us! Still not sure? Then book on to one of our Educator Webinars for a Q&A session with our Engagement Team.
We have impact
Research shows that students who have 4 student-employer encounters are 5 times less likely to become NEET and 3 times more likely to choose a STEM subject. To date we’ve facilitated over 1.4 million student-employer encounters and 96% of students felt inspired by the speakers. To see where we’re having an impact, see our free Insight Reports.
Our Story
Born in 2011, Founders4Schools began as an extension of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK as a manually curated idea to bring inspiring entrepreneurs to universities and schools. The feedback from parents, educators and students was so powerful, we decided to think about how we could use technology common in other industries to the education industry. So by 2013, spurred on by encouragement from Government, industry and the educational sector we collaborated with LinkedIn, edubase, duedil to create a tech platform that supercharged educators to create student-employer encounters as easily as buying a book on Amazon.