What is the ‘Grow Your Future’ campaign?

The original idea for a project like this came to life following a conversation at a party in 2013. I was asked by one of my fellow guests what I did for a living, and I replied “I’m a Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor”.

The person who asked me this question had never heard of this career and so I tried to explain it, in particular how varied and interesting it was and how no two days were ever the same.

I started to discuss this problem with friends and colleagues and I discovered that I was not alone in the problems we face when attempting to explain the nature of our work to people who have never heard of the career. I became very interested in how the specialist rural sector of my profession was promoted and understood by others and whether I could design a website to showcase this career to a wider audience.

NCOP/Higher Horizons+

I was lucky enough to meet the team from Higher Horizons+, a collaborative network of ten Universities and colleges with the objective of supporting schools as part of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP).

NCOP was launched in 2017 as an initiative from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (now Office for Students) to increase participation in higher education across England.

Government goals which NCOP aim to support

• Double the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education by 2020
• Increase by 20% the number of students in higher education from ethnic minority groups
• Address the under-representation of young men from disadvantaged background in higher education

My research has involved working with many different people, from those thinking about a career in surveying right the way up to the people who govern who is ready to become a qualified Surveyor, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The result is Grow Your Future.

I hope you enjoy the website and it inspires you to join me and thousands of others in a highly rewarding, varied and exciting career.

Andrew Black FRICS
[email protected]