Aspire-igen Group Ltd.

The Aspire-igen group is the largest careers and training organisation in the Yorkshire region (an area with a population of over 5 million). The group is a not-for-profit social enterprise with 22 years’ experience of supporting young people and adults into employment. Levels of social deprivation in Yorkshire are among the worst in the UK, with widespread pockets of exclusion and unemployment.

The group supports social inclusion and regeneration by providing a range of guidance and training services. This includes delivering vocational training programmes for NEET young people to prepare them for entry into the labour market and offer careers advice in 28 schools in the region. We are a recognised centre of excellence for professional development and provide training for careers and guidance professionals.

Aspire-igen employs over 150 permanent staff across the region. These staff members help the organisation engage with over 3,000 NEET young people through our vocational training courses, deliver around 36,500 guidance sessions to adults and work with over 10,000 young people via other skills and guidance events (school careers fairs etc.).

Through its Aspire-international department’s involvement in Euroguidance, Aspire-igen has been the European resource centre for the UK guidance community since 1992. We are a source of information on education and guidance in other European countries, and work closely with other services in the UK, such as Europass, Eurodesk and EURES, to support individuals looking to make the most of work or study opportunities abroad. We support British advisors in their work with new arrivals to the country, promoting long term integration and social inclusion of migrants. We also organise and host study visits and job shadowing for colleagues across Europe to share best practices, particularly within the field of digital advancements and the value new technology can add to careers guidance and VET.

The Aspire-igen group places a great deal of importance on monitoring the quality standards of all training and guidance programmes delivered both internally and externally. We were rated as Good in our last Ofsted (the National Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) inspection and are accredited by both the Matrix quality standard and Investors in People.