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There are three interlinked strands of the Haberdashers’ Advantage programme. Working Together is about professional collaboration and brings together staff, school leaders and governors to connect with each other, showcase school achievements, learn from inspiring external speakers and generally gain the benefits of a wider educational context than any individual school group can offer. The Character programme for students is based on establishing a sense of community, providing cultural capital and character development opportunities. The Futures programme for students is outward facing – using Haberdashers' Company networks to provide careers and employability skills development opportunities for students.
Habs Aspire is part of Haberdashers' Futures, connecting students with mentors to support their future career and education goals. You can read more about Habs Aspire below.
The one consistent message we get from our students when we ask them how we can improve our events is that they want more – another night, to meet up with the same students again, other sectors. There is a limit to what we can do with events, so we need to find additional ways to meet this need.
The Aspire mentoring project is designed to address this challenge. In time, we aim to provide a professional mentor to each of our sixth form students. The Company will provide mentors, platform, policy and process coordination. Coordinators in schools will build up local mentor networks and work with students to make sure they get all the benefits that this structured and personalised relationship with the Haberdashers’ wider community can provide.
Rupert Elliott
Past Master Haberdasher
When someone outside your circle shows an interest in you and your future, and commits to it, and gives practical advice and support – you can’t put a price on that. That is Aspire!
Rupert Elliott
Past Master Haberdasher
When someone outside your circle shows an interest in you and your future, and commits to it, and gives practical advice and support – you can’t put a price on that. That is Aspire!
Mentee and mentor resources
Discover resources to support you to get the most out of Habs Aspire.
DISCOVER »
Habs Aspire Mentor Guide
A guide for mentors who have been matched as part of Habs Aspire. May also be useful for anyone who is looking to enroll as a mentor, to find out more about the role.
READ »
Mentee sign up
Are you a current Sixth Form student at a Haberdasher school? Ask your Head of Sixth Form about taking part.
FAQs
All conversations will take place using Microsoft Teams. Aspire Coordinators will invite mentors and mentees to join the Aspire Teams area. They will use the chat to plan when to speak, and schedule 'meetings' through video calls. These calls must be recorded.
This will vary and you can set this together with your mentor/mentee. If you don’t have access to Microsoft Teams at home and so need your meetings to be within school/work hours, make sure you share this so that this can be considered when you are scheduling your calls.
It’s unlikely that this will be practical as a member of school staff would need to be present for safeguarding reasons. However, we don’t want to switch off any opportunities for students so if a mentor can offer shadowing at work or work experience, then we can go through the usual school channels to make this possible.
Habs Aspire will grow to enable all Sixth Form students at Haberdasher schools to participate. In the pilot phase during the 2024/25 academic year, each school group is taking a slightly different approach. If you are a parent/guardian or student looking to participate you should speak to your Head of Year who will be able to connect you with the Aspire Coordinator to find out more.
You can find out more about the Aspire team on the 'meet the team' page of this site. Aspire Coordinators are available to support mentors and mentees, answer any questions and troubleshoot challenges. There are also resources available in the 'mentors' and 'students' area of these sites as well as a forum for mentors to support each other. If you require any additional support, or have questions not answered on this site, you can get in touch with aspire@haberdashers.co.uk
