1. ‘The Trial’. August 2014.
By Duncan McCombe

2. Foreword by Duncan McCombe
“During my time in education I wanted to do a
variety of things as my career. I’ve wanted to be a
builder, a gardener, a teacher, a stuntman, a Walt
Disney World cast member, and my greatest ‘fad’; I
had my heart set on becoming an actor. With many
others in between, that’s just what I can remember.
This may look like I would be sorted for leaving
education, with all these options, but the truth was I
didn’t have a clue what I was going to do.

3. I wanted to go onto University after
completing my A-Levels, and I was
certainly encouraged to do so, but the
truth is it just wasn’t for me. That became
rather clear when I was sat around my
dad’s kitchen table on the morning of the
UCAS deadline and instead of narrowing
my choices down to 5 applications I was
trying to think of 5 courses to apply to!
I had three written down; Filmmaking
at Manchester Metropolitan University
and Drama and Film Studies both at
Liverpool John Moores University. So,
at that moment I decided to take a gap
year. I wasn’t prepared to waste 3 years
of my life (and at least £50,000) doing
something that I wasn’t sure about.
During this year I was going to get as
much experience as possible and enable
myself to make an informed decision
about going to university in September
2014; and that was the best decision I
have ever made.
Towards the end of my time at college
I started attending various networking
events and became an ambassador for
Career Academies UK which gave me
the opportunity to tell my story to lots of
important people at high profile venues
including; education experts at The Etihad
Stadium, bank managers in training at
Barclays (Spinningfields, Manchester)
and college students and parents at
Salford City College, Media City UK. These
opportunities were an incredible eye
opener for me, actually that’s quite an
understatement, they were so much more
than that. As a child I had a strong belief
that I did not want to work in business. I
didn’t want to work in an office, 9 till 5, and
have to wear a suit. Although now, I have
a burning desire to run my own business,
complete polar opposites I know! So what
made the difference? Well at these events
I attended I got to see what business is
really like, it’s so much more than being
stuck in an office, 9 -5 suited and booted,
it’s whatever you make of it!
It was the chance to see it with my own
eyes; talk to people and experience it that
really made the decision for me; and there
and then, Network Young was born.
It became so clear. It isn’t possible for
one single career adviser to tell you, in
detail, about the vast enormity of careers
out there. For me, that isn’t an informed
decision. They don’t know the secret
perks that could seal the job for you such
as; the opportunity to mentor a young
person, a cinema screen to watch the
World Cup on or the chance to spend 9
days cycling across Africa raising money
for charity. Equally they don’t know what
the commute is like every morning, what
the 5am alarm clock sounds like and all
those other factors. For all this you need
to go directly to the source and that is
what I set out to do.”
Duncan McCombe, Founder

4. What is it?
Network Young is a 5 week programme
in schools for students aged 14-16 aimed
at helping them develop high quality,
professional networks which, in turn,
will aid their career choice. This is done
through 5 one hour sessions after school
in which we bring in guest speakers and
experts to lead workshops.
Our aims
Teach students what a
professional network is and the
importance of having one
Start and develop students’
professional networks
Introduce students to a number of
different careers, giving them the
option and resources to explore them
further and make informed decisions
about their future
Teach and improve upon students’
soft skills
Help students to become more
employable when they leave
education
The trial programme -
Week 1 –
Duncan McCombe,
Stewart McCombe (William Ritchie)
Jim Clarke (The Apprentice Academy)
Week 2 –
Charlotte Green &
David Middleton (Grant Thornton)
Week 3 –
Georgina Tripp (gunnercooke)
Week 4 –
Phil Jones (Brother UK)
Week 5 –
Ann Davis (BizWizUK)
In the 1 hour sessions we aim to inspire,
motivate and teach the students. In
their own time outside these sessions
students are given the resources (Directory
of Contacts) to develop their networks
and speak to people in industry, giving
them the opportunity to ask the probing
questions and find out the truth about their
dream job.
To see if Network Young was really going
to work in practice we decided to trial the
5 week programme at Duncan’s old high
school, Bramhall High in Stockport. We
chose Bramhall High School because it
was Duncan’s old school but also, more
importantly, because their head teacher,
Heather Cooper, was asking for “a mixed
economy of adults” to come into her
classrooms (quote from The Education
Agenda, Insider Magazine, October 2013);
exactly what we were offering. The trial ran
for 5 weeks, every Tuesday from 3:05pm-
4:00pm in the library. Starting on 3/6/14
and ending on 1/7/14.
We initially marketed the trial by sending
out letters to all year 10 students, but
this didn’t work and we only received 2
applications back. The biggest reason
for this was they didn’t understand what
Network Young was. Other reasons were;
not enough time due to exams and a
school show being at the same time. Two
students were not enough to run it and
the trial was postponed. On the second
attempt Duncan went into every form
group to speak to all year 10 students,
this enabled him to answer any questions
and really explain what was being offered.
After this we received 8 applications in
total, enough to go ahead!

5. The Directory of Contacts
As well as the 5 week programme,
students also gain exclusive access
to the Network Young Directory of
Contacts. These 25 people have
been carefully selected by Network
Young and have agreed to engage in
conversation with all Network Young
students about their careers. The
students will have the opportunity to
speak to somebody who has a career
in the industry they are interested in
going into or equally they can speak
to somebody who has a career in an
industry that they have never even
heard of before. The students can ask
the members of the directory anything
they want from what their job is like?
What they would have to do to get a
job in that field? Or even what the dress
code is for that type of job? They can
ask whatever is important to them in
a job and the beauty of the directory
is that they will get an honest answer
because the people they are asking do
the job day in, day out, so they know
exactly what it is like. This is all part of
helping the students make informed
decisions about their career choice.
During the sessions in the school,
students will be given help and advice
on how to approach the members of
the directory. We’ll do this by helping
them construct emails, advise them
on the best people to contact and help
them to build relationships.
Once the programme is complete the
students will then have a skillset which
will enable them to sustain their new
network. They will then be able to pull
on this when necessary throughout
their careers.
At the moment all dialogue is done via
email which is sent through the teacher
and Network Young. In the future
we aim to have a website where all
dialogue can take place in one secure
location. The directory members can
put forward whatever contact details
are best for them also and be contacted
in a way that suits them.
The directory continues to grow on a
daily basis, and through the members’
extended networks, we are confident of
introducing students to contacts across
most industries.
Charlotte Smith Mistral Group
Chris Hardman Enterprise Ventures
Christine Piper ITV
Darren Hutchinson Dreamscope TV
Darryl Cooke gunnercooke
Duncan McCombe Network Young
Georgina Tripp gunnercooke
Graham Bond Baker Tilly
Inness Mattinson Inness Design
Jennifer McCarthy Hugh Joseph
McCarthy Solicitors
Jim Clarke The Apprentice
Academy
Karen Young Hays
Kate Jones Inspired Lives
Lindsay Garman Leonard Curtis
Business Solutions
Group
Lucy Green Contact
Nazma Ghafoor The Apprentice
Academy
Pamela McColl ConwayMcColl
Solicitors
Paul Roberts Deloitte
Paul Smith Duff & Phelps
Sami France Design By Day
Sinead Flood UCFB
Steven Lindsay CLB Coopers
Stewart McCombe Enterprise Ventures
Sven Hanger Stark Brooks
Tom Rogers Stark Brooks

6. My View
Overall I was happy with the trial. The
demographic of students was great; they
all really wanted to be there and really
wanted to learn which was good to see.
I really enjoyed the opening session. It
was fast paced with three speakers and
kept the audience alert. This definitely
worked best but I wouldn’t be able to get
three speakers in each week. Instead I
have worked independently with a teacher
on how to improve the sessions and make
them all as engaging as this.
Week two was a panel discussion with
two employees from Grant Thornton,
Charlotte Green and David Middleton.
I opened the session by explaining the
Directory of Contacts. I gave them all a
hard copy of the directory and we talked
through how to write emails, why you
would want to talk to the members and
began looking at building networks. The
panel style session had a slower pace
than the previous week, although all
the students did ask a question about a
career in accounting at some point so
they were engaged.
On the third session we had a question
and answer session with lawyer, Georgina
Tripp, a partner at gunnercooke, which
was a great session for the student who
came with a clear interest in becoming
a barrister due to family influences. Both
George and the students seemed to
get something out of this hour. George
provided some really good insights into
a career in law and the students asked
relevant questions about how to pursue
such a career.
The fourth week was another guest
speaker; we had Phil Jones, Managing
Director at Brother UK. Phil told a great
story about his career to date telling
students how he went from working in an
‘EastEnders style pub’ in the East End of
London to becoming a managing director.
This session definitely achieved the goal
of inspiring the students to go on and
achieve great success in their careers.
Another moment of magic happened on
his day, when a student asked how he
would go about getting work experience.
Phil gave the response of “Write a letter
to the HR depart…” but before he had
finished the student had responded
“But I know you!”, which was very clever
and taken well by all in the room. So
Phil invited the student to send him an
email. This particular student set up a
lot of opportunities and it was great to
see them make full use of the exposure
to great business people. I noted down
on this day that I thought this session
would work well with a group of college
students, I believe they will get a lot out
of an hour with Phil Jones, especially
business studies students.
The final session was the LinkedIn
training session run by Ann Davies which
I though was excellent. She kicked off the
session with a very engaging video which
set the tone for the session and gave a
quick overview of what she was going
to talk about over the next 45 minutes.
She explained, clearly, the purposes of
LinkedIn and how to set up a basic profile.

7. We then went on to discuss personal
brand online and about how you present
yourself over social media in this current
climate; telling real stories about our
experiences. The students really saw the
relevance and seemed to be taken aback
by the fact that what you tweet/put on
Facebook today can affect you in your
career 10/20/30 years down the line. It
was good to see the message getting
across early so students can tailor their
social image accordingly.
On the whole I was very happy with the 5
weeks.

8. Student Feedback
This question represents the starting
point of the course and can be used as
a benchmark to monitor the progress of
students. For the 57% of students who
knew what they wanted to do we aimed to
help develop their knowledge of a career
in that field and help them to make an
informed decision about whether that is
the right career choice for them. For the
43% of students who didn’t know what
they wanted to do we aimed to showcase
to them a variety of careers to open their
minds to what’s out there.
When I started Network Young I knew
what I wanted to do as a careeer.
If you did - I now know more about the
career I want to go into.
If you didn’t - I now know what I want to
do as a career or have a better idea.
With regards to the 57% students who did
know what they wanted to do 100% of
them have left with a better knowledge of
that career. This should now enable them
to make a more informed decision about
that career choice.
Out of the 43% students who didn’t know
what they wanted to do we can see that
67% of these students do in fact now
have a better idea about what they want
to do even though they didn’t know what
they wanted to do when they started. This
is the really important one as it shows the
amount of people who now know what
they want to do as a career or have a
better idea after not knowing at all at the
beginning of the course.

9. I understand what a network is as a
result of the programme.
I have started to develop my own
network which I can maintain and grow.
I now feel more prepared for leaving
school.
I understand the importance of having
a network following the programme.
Both these charts show a 100% success
rate as everybody now understands what
a network is and everybody understands
the importance of having a network.
We are really glad with these results as
the main emphasis of Network Young
is on networking so to have everybody
understand what it is and the importance
of it is really good.
This chart really reflects the work of
the Directory of Contacts, a vital part
of the programme. 71% of students
said they did start to develop their own
network which they can maintain and
grow, which shows a good success rate.
The people they are referring to are the
people who came into the sessions to
talk so that’s great that they feel they
have added them to their network. This
statistic will improve in courses to come
with the addition of a website where all
communication between students and
directory members can take place.
Network Young has an aim of preparing
students for leaving education but also
preparing them for progressing through
different stages in their careers, the first
one being leaving high school (in 12
months for this group of students). The
data in this graph is really good to see
as it shows another success with 100%
of students agreeing that they feel more
prepared for leaving school and 57% of
those strongly agreeing.

10. Student Feedback
Would you recommend us to friends? Would you come to anther programme
with new speakers?
These final 2 charts are also very pleasing
as they show that 100% of students will
both; come again and recommend us
to friends. This proves to me that the
customer likes the product and we got the
student demographic right. We always
knew that the biggest challenge would
be to get the first group of students to
buy into a brand new concept so we are
glad that these eight completed it and will
tell their friends about it. We were also
informed that students were talking about
us on the school corridor which is really
positive.
According to the feedback this shows
which sessions students enjoyed the
most -
Week 1 –
Introduction with Duncan McCombe,
Stewart McCombe (Enterprise Ventures)
Jim Clarke (The Apprentice Academy)
Week 5 –
Linkedin training with Ann Davis
(BizWizUK)
Week 2 –
Guest speakers from Grant Thornton
Charlotte Green & David Middleton
1
2
3

11. Student Comments
What did you enjoy the most?
“Learning about careers I am interested in”
“The LinkedIn session”
“Phil Jones talk and Grant Thornton”
“I enjoyed learning about accounting with
Grant Thornton”
“Knowing more about the different
opportunities and careers to go into”
“The people”
What do you think could be improved?
“More variety or more weeks so you can
learn about more careers”
“Different activities rather than just
speakers”
“More interaction”
“More contacts and more information on
LinkedIn”
“More interactive”
“Unsure, I liked all sessions”

12. Teacher Feedback
Louise Clifton was my primary contact at
the school and it is her who we worked
with in putting the programme on there.
At the end of the programme she also
provided feedback.
She agreed that students gained
knowledge of a selection of careers
available to them, helping them to make
informed decisions, students started to
develop their own network which they
could maintain and grow and students are
better prepared for leaving high school.
We were pleased with these responses.
We were even more pleased by the fact
that she strongly agreed that students
were taught what a network is and also
the importance of having a network,
this is one of our fundamental aims.
She also said she would recommend us
to colleagues and take part in another
programme with different speakers.
The biggest piece of feedback she
continually gave back was to break down
the sessions into 15-20 minute blocks
and we completely agree with this. She
said that this will motivate the students
more and retain engagement which
would make it easier for the students to
take something away from the sessions.
Another piece of feedback she gave a lot
was to put the programme into a one day
offering that schools could buy into for
extracurricular activity days or careers
days.
Louise’s top 3 sessions were:
Week 5 -
LinkedIn training session with
Ann Davies from BizWizUK
Week 4 -
Guest Speaker from Brother UK,
Phil Jones
Week 3 -
Q&A with Georgina Tripp from
gunnercooke.
1
2
3

13. Speaker Feedback
“I remain totally supportive of Network
Young, and was privileged to participate in
the very first session.
The event was very well organised,
the students arrived on time and were
attentive, and Louise, the link teacher, was
very supportive.
I speak to everyone about Network Young
and see it as a key opportunity going
forward. There is a clear need for this type
of service.
In terms of feedback, I would like to be
more connected with the other speakers,
understand the whole picture, and learn
more about the student journey. I would
have liked more formal communication
around my involvement, giving me clear
directions as to my participation, as well
as reminders immediately prior.
Always willing to present again.
Good luck!”
Stewart McCombe, William Ritchie
“I enjoyed taking part in my session in the
Network Young programme and I would
be happy to take part again. I am happy
to tell other work colleagues about it and
have already informed relevant business
people about the programme. It was well
organised, I was well briefed beforehand
and the introduction on the day was good
by Duncan.”
Jim Clarke, The Apprentice Academy

14. Review The Future
Positives
We spoke to every year 10 student,
class by class, and secured 8 people
for the trial
Phil Jones invited a student to send
him an email regarding work
experience at Brother UK due to his
initiative of simply asking him mid-
session
The LinkedIn session was great and
went down really well. The use of
visuals and a video was good
The teacher and all students would
recommend the programme to friends
and colleagues and partake in another
programme
All students understand what
a professional network is and the
importance of having a professional
network
The speakers are willing to take part in
more sessions
Improvements
We need to market the programme to
the students better so they
understand what it is and the
importance of it, therefore increasing
the number of attendees
The sessions need to be broken down
into ice-breaker sessions, group/
individual work and tasks
Bring the LinkedIn session forward.
The Introduction session will always
come first so possibly always have
LinkedIn second
Students asked for more sessions
and speakers
Speakers want to be more connected
with the other speakers, understand
the whole picture, and learn more
about the student journey. They would
have liked more formal
communication around involvement,
giving clear directions as to
participation, as well as reminders
immediately prior
Create a one day programme
compressing the 5 weeks into one day
The introduction of a website will
make the Directory of Contacts a lot
easier to use and increase its use
After a successful trial we are very
excited about taking Network Young
forward. We have learned a lot through
this process but most importantly we
have demonstrated the need for this
service and that it works. The fact that
only 2 students showed interest initially
proves that students don’t see the
importance of thinking about a career
early on and building contacts from a
young age.
In the 2014-2015 academic year we
would like to run 5 more programmes
in local high schools. As well as this we
would also like to explore putting on a
programme in a college in Stockport as
we believe there is definitely a market
for this service in higher education.
Over this year, we will focus on
improving the quality of the sessions
as well as creating a one day offering,
growing the portfolio of people involved
and increasing the variety of industries.
We will also work hard on the alumni
aspect of things so Network Young can
grow and the student journey doesn’t
end after the 5 weeks.

15. Call to Action
Thank you for reading the Network
Young evaluation. Please see below
the various ways in which you, your
business or your school can get
involved with the programme.
For Businesses -
Sponsor a year or a single
programme
For Professionals -
Get introduced to us by somebody
already involved in Network Young and
offer your time as a guest speaker or
directory member
For Schools/Colleges -
Get in touch and book in a programme
for your school or college
Contact -
Duncan McCombe, Founder
duncan.mccombe@outlook.com
www.networkyoung.co.uk
Twitter: @Network_Young

16. Thank You
Network Young would not have been able to come as far
as it has in its first year without the incredible support and
generosity of the people of Greater Manchester. To all that
have been part of the journey so far, we thank you.
Stewart McCombe, William Ritchie
Sally Toumi, Stark Brooks
David Harrison, Accenture
Inness Mattinson, Inness Design
Paul Smith, Duff & Phelps
Lucy Green, Contact
Sinead Flood, University College of Football Business
Heather Cooper and Louise Clifton, Bramhall High School
Jim Clarke, The Apprentice Academy
David Middleton, Grant Thornton
Charlotte Green, Grant Thornton
Georgina Tripp, gunnercooke
Phil Jones, Brother UK
Ann Davies, BizWizUK
Each and every one of you in the
Directory of Contacts