End of Year Update and Reflection

By Ellie Marlow and Chloe Lambert

As we approach the end of 2020, it is fair to say that 2020 has been a difficult and unpredictable year. Like all projects at Enactus Sheffield, OnTarget has had to repeatedly adapt to overcome a range of challenges. With the advent of the first national lockdown, we were unable to send our mentors into schools, provide football sessions and work placements for the pupils or run our 24-hour football match. This was incredibly disheartening after all the hard work the team put in, but we rallied and were determined to continue to aid our beneficiaries. In another of our blog posts, you can read about how we expanded our social media reach to connect with secondary school students whose education had been disrupted by the pandemic. 


Over the summer, we continued to use this channel but looked to construct a more long term plan for how we could use our team and resources to have a positive impact amongst all the change caused by the coronavirus and its restrictions. We looked into a range of partnerships but were repeatedly prevented from pursuing them further because of new policy or restrictions, so we had to change our angle.

 

The team all worked really hard to carry out a lot of research into what students were missing out on in education because of school closures and online learning. After conducting interviews with teachers, sending questionnaires out and multiple team discussions, we decided to scale up the platform we created in March. Drawing on personal experiences and research, our team members have been producing incredibly valuable and insightful resources on employment skills. This has included a wide range of topics from how to write a CV and prepare for an interview to revision tips. To allow easy access, we have added an extra page to our website where these resources will be uploaded in PDF for anyone and everyone to download. On social media, infographics have been shared on our Instagram page and in our new Facebook group. We are really pleased that we can continue to provide advice, despite all the disruption, that is accessible and informative. 


Although the year has been unexpected and surprising, what has not surprised us is the ability of our team to persevere! As the world has moved online in these unprecedented times, OnTarget has made our mark virtually, creating a needed and useful resource for pupils to use to help them adjust to all the disruption their education has experienced. Although it is a shame we were unable to deliver our usual meaningful programme, we are pleased that we have continued to have a positive impact, spreading our ethos and allowing even more students access to our resources. Hopefully, 2021 will bring an easier year, but either way, we know we can continue to adjust and drive positive change. 

Location: United Kingdom

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