5th October 2020

Latest news from The Platform Project

ENTREPRENEUR JAMES PHIPPS BECOMES CHAIRMAN OF THE PLATFORM PROJECT

Swindon youth development firm, The Platform Project has named Swindon entrepreneur James Phipps as their Chairman.

Following a 12-month involvement as a non-executive director, the businessman has now stepped up. The philanthropic businessmen will use the role to support continued growth, community and business engagement.

He said: ‘I’ve spent the last year working with the team and seeing the huge difference the Platform Project has made to young people. Thus I was both humbled and excited when asked to become Chairman.

We have a hugely talented and passionate Board. We aim to continue the significant growth. That way we can help as many young people as we can have a chance to make the best of the opportunities ahead of them.’

ENTREPRENEUR BECOMES PLATFORM PROJECT CHAIRMAN  - James Phipps
James Phipps

Sadie Sharp

The project’s founder Sadie Sharp asked James to take on the Chair.

“I’m delighted James has accepted this role to help us grow and develop even further as an organisation. Our choice to operate as a Community Interest Company rather than a charity has helped us embrace commercial thinking and scalable practices. Now we earn almost half of our income from our sold services, which has led to our self-funded growth and further expansion plans. But this has been reliant upon us having the right business savvy people in the right roles. And James’ entrepreneurial and charitable experiences are a perfect fit for our vision and goals.

“We recently got a grant of £36,500 from the Social Enterprise Support Fund to help more young people improve their employability prospects. This is even more critical now. So we’re so fortunate to have James in the role of Chair to help steer us towards a sustainable yet rapid expansion.”

The Platform Project’s … projects

The Platform Project currently runs many small trading youth led businesses. They’ll be increasing their number of sessions to provide a more full-time development option for young people needing extra help to transition into employment or enterprise. These opportunities all develop CV-credible experiences, confidence and hands-on skills in a “training workplace”, including: 

*1. a youth magazine.
*2. printed goods business.
*3. a digital media marketing agency. 
*4. a creative careers start up service. 

Sadie said: “We’ve supported around 50 young people this year. We’re now in a fortunate position to be able to scale up to meet the ever increasing youth unemployment needs. Our key strategic activities now are to:

1)Broaden our range and frequency of youth led business sessions. That will help more young people become more work ready, secure work and launch their own enterprises. 

2) Expand our alternative education service to schools and colleges. That will help more students learn how they can work for themselves if the job market doesn’t present many options. 

3) Establish our model as a social franchise and launch it in other places in the UK. Thus we’ll help even more young people level the playing field by learning how to work for themselves and run a business.”

The Platform Project has celebrated its third birthday. Since starting as a volunteer led organisation it’s tripled in size each year, with its income now at around £70,000.

To find more or to volunteer as a mentor, visit: www.platformproject.co.uk

For other Platform Project news see this post: https://swindonian.me/2020/09/01/swindon-entrepreneur-finalist-in-great-british-entrepreneur-awards-2020/ and also this one: https://swindonian.me/2020/05/29/sharp-vlog-from-business-consultant/

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