Seeing is Believing visit in Woking highlights the positive results for students

Twelve delegates took part in the first of a series of regional Seeing is Believing visits in Woking on Tuesday, 1st November. The visit was designed to showcase the positive impact of Mosaic’s secondary school programme and the work of the Woking Asian Business Forum (WABF).

Hosted by the Ray Morgan OBE, Chief Executive of Woking Borough Council, and led by Toaha Qureshi MBE, Chief Executive Officer of London College of Business Management and Information Technology, the delegates represented a diverse group of organisations such as Petrofac, JP Morgan, the World Wildlife Fund, The Rutland Group and SpringHill Management Ltd.

The delegates attended a mentoring session on Developing Confidence at the Bishop David Brown School, and were able to witness for themselves the inspiring effect on students of their interaction with the mentors.

Students from last year’s secondary school programme took part in the session, as well as students who will attend this year’s programme.

Positive impact

Mentors and delegates shared their personal experiences, and were able to share with the students the importance of gaining confidence, and how it has shaped the progression of their own careers. The delegates were also impressed to learn that the students mentored through last year’s programme outperformed their peers by over 20% in their GCSEs.

After the session, mentors shared with the delegates the positive impact that working with students has had on both their personal and professional lives.

Woking Asian Business Forum

The work of the WABF was then highlighted to the delegates. WABF supports the development of local businesses in Woking, and encourages its members to engage with others throughout the community to promote social inclusion, improve the health of the local economy and the health and wellbeing of the community.

Shahid Azeem, Chairman of Mosaic South East said: “the visit was a huge success, and it was great to see the delegates so inspired from their interaction with the students. What has made this work so well in Woking is having a highly professional and caring team of mentors, strong leadership from the Head of the school, underpinned by solid operational support from Woking Asian Business Forum and Mosaic. With further support from local businesses, the Local Authority and other local partners, we are hugely excited about expanding the programme into more schools in the area”.

Seeing is Believing visits

The Prince’s Seeing is Believing visits invite senior business leaders and other influential people to look at key issues of social concern. This visit is part of a series led by Tidjane Thiam (Group Chief Executive, Prudential) designed to raise awareness amongst the most senior business leaders of the issues facing young people in our most disadvantaged communities, as well as highlight the work being done by Mosaic to address them. Four other regional visits will take place across the country, culminating in a national visit led by Mr Thiam on 11th January.

More information

To find out more about Mosaic’s work in the South East, visit the South East pages.

To find out how you can support Mosaic, visit our Get Involved pages.

To view photos from the day, see our Photostream on Flickr.