Ashton Old Baths inspires young people with future career options

In the 2023/2024 academic year, Ashton Old Baths invited schools across Oldham and Tameside to visit the centre for a Workplace Safari offering young people an experience of the workplace.

Ashton Old Baths is a private and shared office space in Tameside, which is steeped in history and is buzzing with innovation. The space now serves as a dynamic hub for the next generation of digital and creative pioneers.

From insights gathered from the latest #BeeWell’s annual survey, which was completed by more than 150 schools and approximately 17,400 young people in Year 10 across Greater Manchester, 45% of young people in the city-region expressed an interest in starting a business. Through Ashton Old Baths’ Workplace Safari, they provided a line of sight into self-employment for young people.

By the end of the academic year, 108 students attended a workplace safari at Ashton Old Baths with support from the GMCA Education, Work and Skills!

What happened?

Ashton Old Baths is always eager to collaborate with schools and colleges, inviting young people to explore the building’s rich history, its regeneration, and future plans. They also aim to inspire young people by highlighting careers in private and shared spaces, office management, and self-employment.

During the visit, students had the opportunity to:

-Discover the history of Ashton Old Baths
-Learn about the role of staff members and how they moved into their roles
-Understand the role of business private and shared spaces in the community
-Learn about the type of businesses that work there and why they would use private and shared spaces                                                                                                                                      – Gain insights into self employment/ start-ups Explore its regeneration which links to their Geography curriculum

Impact and feedback

Teacher from participated school:

“All students really enjoyed the experience! They liked sitting in the boardroom.”

Participated students:

“Really helped broaden my horizons!”

“Really creative space for collaboration.”

“The architecture was beautiful, a 5-star experience!”

Ashton Old Baths:

“The pupils are usually quite quiet at first until they start to understand what Ashton Old Baths is about and the interesting facts surrounding the building, then they seem to interact more by asking questions, there was a few occasions where we actually ran over schedule due to the amount of questions being asked by the pupils! The teachers are also always surprised at how stunning the design is and the business services that we offer.”

There were quite a few occasions on the tours when I overheard pupils saying to each other and to me that they wanted to run their own business and work from Ashton Old Baths! When we go into detail about the services that we provide such as business support, networking opportunities, possible funding & grants they seem interested to understand that we are more than just bricks and mortar!”

Next steps

Ashton Old Baths will be inviting more schools and colleges for a Workplace Safari in the next academic year!

They have shared some top tips to empower other businesses across Greater Manchester for organising a Workplace Safari:

Create an online booking system – this is a easy and simple way for Careers Leaders to book their visit.
Link your organisation to the curriculum – i.e. Regeneration to Geography, it brings learning to life!
Be flexible on numbers – schools usually have minibuses, ask them how many students they can bring.
Make it meaningful to young people – don’t use acronyms, jargon or overcomplicate when talking to young people about career pathways.