Left to right: Victoria Parker, Sadie Sharp, Andy Langley, Chris Blackwell and Helen Hancock.

The Platform Project in Dorcan is excited to announce that they have appointed 4 new Non-Executive Directors to their board of Directors.  

“The Swindon based non-profit is an innovative development organisation that helps young people gain the skills, confidence and experience they need to launch their career. The appointment of the new Directors sees them bring more industry leading professionals on board to help them bridge the gap between education and employment by providing work ready, capable, and confident entry level talent.”

The four new Directors bring with them a range of commercial skill sets, including recruitment, legal, financial, and corporate partnerships. Victoria Parker is Operations Director for Outsource UK - a professional and technical recruitment and workforce solutions provider who have their head office in Swindon. She joins The Platform Project Board as the Proposition Lead, helping the non-profit develop its commercial talent offering to employers. 

Victoria said “Having previously been involved with mentoring young people, I was really keen to join The Platform Project to support them with the fantastic work they are doing. Some of the key objectives for the project going forwards are to help local employers with ways to better engage and retain young people, and hopefully I can draw on my recruitment experience to assist with this.”

Chris Blackwell is a Co-Director of the Swindon based mortgage advice firm, TED Mortgages, and is chair of local networking group ‘Business Wise’. Chris has joined The Platform Project as partnerships lead and will be helping to broker relationships with local employers. 

He said “I joined The Platform Project as having struggled with confidence and gaining employment when I was young myself, I feel that helping young people develop work skills and find work experience is an area that doesn't have enough support. The more young people in Wiltshire we can help, the better it is for our community, and I am looking forward to using my professional skills to support a very worthwhile cause.”

Helen Hancock is a qualified solicitor and founded the local Swindon based charity ‘Doing it for Dan.’ Helen said “I am thrilled to be joining the Board of The Platform Project which does such fantastic work preparing young people for employment in our local community. Having previously experienced how youth mentoring and development can have such a positive impact on the lives of young people I’m excited to be involved with a project that inspires and empowers young people to reach their full potential and I hope that I am able to use my legal and charity experiences to contribute to its ongoing success.”

Michelle Simpson has a background in strategic partnerships, having worked with Nationwide, The Big Issue, and other large corporates. Michelle is now Strategic Opportunities lead at The Platform Project and will be helping create relationships with large organisations who have similar goals.

Michelle said “I feel quite passionate about ensuring young people are given as many career choices as possible and are provided with the support network to help them succeed. The Platform Project does exactly this with very practical and tangible outputs. It is a privilege to be working with the team at Platform Project, to have the opportunity to contribute to the future success of the business as well as helping the young people reach their potential.”

The new team of Non-Executive Directors will be working with the MD Sadie Sharp to extract the innovative skills and techniques that The Platform Project has developed so that employers, schools, and other community groups can apply their models and frameworks to develop the young people they work with.

The Platform Project is delighted to welcome them all to the team. 

For more information on The Platform Project and how they can help you develop the young people you work with, please visit www.platformproject.co.uk/