5 mins with Kathy Walker Co-founder and CEO, StartUp Sherpas
5 mins with Kathy Walker
What is the problem you’re solving with StartUp Sherpas?
“We really focus on bridging that gap between the skills that young people are learning at school and the skills that they will need in the workplace.” Kathy explains that the world of work is changing faster than the curriculum can, so young people are not getting enough of the innovation, entrepreneurship, and work-readiness skills employers say they need.
Why did you decide to build a tech platform first?
“Our programs are about scale… we built the platform first because we were really, really driven by scale.” She shares that many traditional skills programmes are powerful but limited in reach, so StartUp Sherpas built a digital “e-doing” platform that can support thousands of young people across the UK.
What kind of skills do young people build through your programmes?
Within the missions, young people develop “critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, as well as just like really simple work readiness skills… how to write an email, how to communicate on Slack or Teams, you know, how to ask a good question.” Kathy calls it “skills development by stealth,” because young people don’t always realise how many transferable skills they’re building while they work through real challenges.
Why is Super Squad a paid remote work experience?
“We pay the young people because they are doing real work… this work experience that they come onto is real work.” Young people complete 21 hours of missions over six weeks and earn around £155, paid at apprentice minimum wage, which also helps attract harder-to-reach young people who might not usually apply for these opportunities.
How do you make sure the programmes create value for employers too?
“Probably around 85% of the program is standardised… but that 15% can be tailored to a specific employer or industry.” Employers fund the programme, help shape a real business challenge, and in return receive thousands of ideas, a catalogue of the best concepts, data and insights, and an impact report at the end.
What impact are you seeing on young people’s confidence?
“At the beginning of the program, they may question why an employer wants to work with them… and at the end of the program, they’re asking who has the IP rights to their ideas.” Kathy says confidence is the biggest shift, and StartUp Sherpas also tracks changes in how confident young people feel in specific skills from the start to the end of the programme.
Who takes part, and how do you reach them?
“We have paid around £370,000 pounds into what we call the teenage economy… about 4,000 young people have been on our program so far.” The team works with schools and careers leads to share opportunities, and deliberately over-indexes on young people on free school meals so that the money and experience reach those who can benefit most.
What’s it actually like working with the young people?
“I kind of feel like I’ve got a hundred new colleagues for six weeks and that’s how I treat them.” Kathy says participants are professional, show up, work hard, and are “an absolute delight to work with,” which challenges the negative narratives sometimes heard about young people and work.
How do employers and volunteers get involved in delivery?
“We try and make it as low touch as possible… we need a little brainstorming session with you in advance so we can set the challenge correctly.” There’s also a week-three Q&A where young people can “grill” employer representatives, and for hybrid models, StartUp Sherpas trains volunteers to run sessions in schools with carefully structured content so they can focus on connecting with students.
How can people get in touch with you?
Through our website or via LinkedIn.
Linkedin
StartUp Sherpas
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Join Sarah as she speaks with Kathy Walker, CEO of StartUp Sherpas, about bridging the skills gap, future-ready careers and how edtech is transforming work experience.