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a week of skills development, followed by a three-day business experience and mentoring for a minimum of 6
months provided by our security partners. Thanks to funding and support from a number of security industry
organisations including The Security Institute, this year, we’ve delivered our fourth year of the Secure Futures
programme in London and Manchester.

Secure Futures programme A cohort of 34 diverse young people took part during the Easter and May half-term to gain an insight into the
security industry through a range of sessions. Each young person was selected from a pool of candidates due
to their expressed interest in the Security sector (beating on average 4 other young people for their place).
Volunteers from a range of organisations led sessions and shared their industry insights with the young people.

Alongside developing skills in teamwork, communication, self-reflection, leadership and more, the young
people are tasked with practical security activities. The Business Challenge, a “Dragon’s Den” style day, sees
the young people work in groups to develop a response to a security focused real-world challenge set that
morning. This year, their challenge was to look for hypothetical vulnerabilities within/and outside buildings
in the area and present recommendations for improvement. After working together for just a few hours,
they presented to a panel of judges in the afternoon. One judge said ‘I was impressed that the young people
identified vulnerabilities in security programmes and recommended mitigations that some seasoned security
professionals would overlook. It was a really tough job to pick an overall winner as the standard was so high’.

This is followed by a three-day work experience hosted by our security partner organisations. In Manchester,
83% of the young people rated their experience a 7 or above. In the words of one of the young people “There
are a much wider variety of possible careers than I thought there was, and they are very interesting. It also
provides high chance of being promoted in the cases we’ve seen”

The security industry strives the enhance the lives of all, which so poignantly benefits from the insights
provided by diverse backgrounds. It’s clear that there’s more work to do to attract young and diverse talent
into the sector. The EY Foundation is invested in building this programme, and with the support of even more
organisations in the sector, we are committed to help more young people gain an insight into the industry.
There are lots of ways to get involved, so, if this sounds of interest, please get in touch with Shruti Sidhu,
Corporate Partnerships Account Manager at EY Foundation, shruti.sidhu@eeyfoundation.ey.com.

We want to sincerely thank our volunteers, funders, business hosts and supporters across the security industry
for your continued commitment to the Secure Futures programme. We look forward to welcoming the London
cohort back in July for their business experience, and begin to build a bigger and better programme in 2024.