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Words for Work: Women in Leadership

secondary girls and teacher

Words for Work: Women in Leadership helps young women and non-binary students to develop the literacy skills, leadership abilities and confidence they need to achieve their potential.

About the programme

Our Words for Work: Women in Leadership programme, in partnership with Lancôme, aims to challenge inequalities in employment opportunities for young women and non-binary students in post-16 education.

We deliver a series of workshops to promote workplace literacy, including teacher-led lessons in schools, a day with Lancôme and a panel event with inspiring women across a diverse range of careers.

"It made me feel like I could accomplish anything and made me excited for the future."

Words for Work: Women in Leadership student

Current opportunities

Regional in-person programmes: For our in-person programmes, we are encouraging participation from schools and colleges in Manchester, London and Nottingham with young women and non-binary students aged 16+.

Please look out for information about an exciting virtual International Women's Day event, which will be open for schools across the country to sign up to.

If you are interesting in being a panellist for our Women in Leadership programme, please get in touch.

Get involved

To sign up or to receive more information about our programmes, please email Words for Work.

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Impact

Recent evaluation has shown that after taking part in Words for Work: Women in Leadership:

  • 97% of participants know how to communicate in the workplace and give a speech

  • 96% of participants feel more prepared to enter employment

  • 80% of participants have a better understanding of what may be expected of them in a job interview

  • 100% of teachers said the programme raised students’ aspirations

Need

Young people who leave school with poor literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed as adults. Research shows that this negative impact is twice as large for women than for men. And the inequalities don’t stop there.

  • The negative effect of poor literacy skills on employability is twice as large for women than for men.

  • 64% of young women believe they won’t have the same chances to be successful in their future jobs as men.

  • Women in the UK are three times less likely to hold director-level roles than men (26% vs 74%).

  • At every level of education, women need to earn one additional degree in order reach average salaries in line with men’s averages.