Derby Promise will build a brighter future for the city’s next generation
Published: 15 May 2024
Apprentices from Rolls-Royce Nuclear Skills academy with (L-R) Steve Layton, Cllr Baggy Shanker, Richard Gerver and Cllr John Whitby
Derby City Council has joined forces with partners across the city to make a collective commitment to Derby’s children and young people, and their families.
They have signed up to the Derby Promise, which aims to expand opportunities, raise aspirations and promote the wellbeing of the next generation.
Our commitment:
Team Derby promises to support every young person in the city to live their best life. Together we’ll provide meaningful opportunities to get careers experience; for you to build your skills; and to give you the confidence to reach your full potential. Believe it. Achieve it.
The Derby Promise will see a network of businesses, educational and cultural organisations – together with the Council – provide meaningful opportunities for children, young people and adults from primary school right through to further and adult education.
They will be able to access careers experiences, build their skills and explore the future of work, leaving them confident and ambitious about their place in Derby’s future.
The Derby Promise was launched with an event at the Rolls-Royce Nuclear Skills Academy at Infinity Park, attended by Team Derby members, representatives from organisations across Derby and Rolls-Royce apprentices.
Councillor Baggy Shanker, Leader of Derby City Council, said:
Our children and young people are the future of Derby, and we can support them to live their best lives and achieve their potential by through education, up-skilling, and personal development.
As a forward-thinking manufacturing city with a rich industrial history, Derby is the ideal place for children to be inspired by the innovation all around them. Having inspirational experiences at a young age, whether it’s a cultural encounter, going to a sporting event or visiting a workplace like Rolls-Royce or Toyota, can ignite something in a child.
By signing up to the Derby Promise, Team Derby partners have agreed to work together to inspire the next generation and give them pride in themselves and the city.
Derby is a member of UNESCO’s Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC), in recognition of its outstanding efforts to make lifelong learning a reality for all people within the city.
The Derby Promise will build on the great work that’s already happening with a programme of action which includes the creation of its logo, which will be co-created with young people.
The full programme is still in development, but exciting events already planned include a Festival of Sport this summer, promoting physical activity and wellbeing for all.
Team Derby members gathered at the Rolls-Royce Nuclear Skills Academy to pledge their support to the Derby Promise
There will be an annual Festival of Ideas, which this year will focus on Climate Change. It will feature a Big Questions event with the University of Derby, industry leaders and young people looking at key challenges facing the world and the solutions we can bring, plus school projects, competitions and debates.
Other highlights will include the Derby Book – a city-wide campaign to get children reading and develop their communication skills – and a series of industry-led projects with schools, led by the Council's Enterprise for Education (E4E) team.
A new Skills and Employment Hub website will also be developed, giving Derby people a new one-stop shop for jobs, apprenticeships, learning and skills opportunities and much more.
Former Derbyshire headteacher Richard Gerver has been instrumental in the creation of the Derby Promise. He is a globally-renowned expert in human potential and education who speaks to audiences around the world.
Richard said:
Derby is a special city filled with people who have the potential to do amazing things. The Derby Promise is testament to that. It’s so exciting to see our community come together in order to fire and empower the aspirations of the next generation so that they can realise their potential and, with it, a brighter future for us all.
Rolls-Royce is one of the key Derby businesses that have signed up to support the Derby Promise. Steve Layton, Head of Engineering Operations at Rolls-Royce, said:
Derby is our home and the Derby Promise is about bringing industry closer to younger people to inspire their future careers.
It’s important that we go out into schools, hear what’s important to children and help them make the connection between what they’re learning, what’s important to them and what we do here. We want young people in the city to see themselves having a career with us.