Our programmes and partnerships

Inspiring the future

We work with national charity Education and Employers on their Inspiring the future programme. By going into local schools and chatting to young people about our job and our route to achieving it, we can spark their imaginations about what they can achieve in future.

Volunteers take part in a range of activities, including career insights talks, career fairs, CV workshops and mock interviews.

Research by shows that by six years old, children have already started to form opinions about what they can – or can’t – be in the future. They are influenced by what they see around them – and gender, ethnicity and social background can play a big part in this. Research also shows that when employers visit schools they can be a powerful force for change: students who took part in four or more employer engagement activities were 25% less likely to become NEET (not in employment, education or training). 

At BP we see it as part of our role to equip future generations with the skills to successfully enter the changing labour market and empower them to achieve their goals in life.

BP Ultimate STEM Challenge

The BP Ultimate STEM Challenge is a nationwide competition for 11 to 14-year-olds that BP runs in association with the Science Museum Group and STEM learning. The competition, now in its fourth year, has been designed to help young people develop their creativity, problem-solving skills and employability.

This year’s students were challenged to use their STEM skills to help reduce our impact on the environment and create a more sustainable future. They developed solutions to three real-world challenges that addressed the issues of reducing the use of natural resource and bring down greenhouse gas emissions.

Enterprising Science and Project ENTHUSE

Enterprising Science is a collaborative research and development programme with University College London, King’s College London and the Science Museum Group, aiming to improve post-16 participation in science. The research insights are informing all of our work with schools, from employee volunteering to the production of teaching resources.

We are developing tools and techniques for teachers and museum educators and sharing them via Talk Science professional development courses and Project ENTHUSE, which provides bursaries for high-quality continuing professional development (CPD) training for teachers in the STEM subjects.

Schools Link

Schools Link is our employee volunteering programme in schools. The purpose is to inspire young people with STEM subjects and business through face-to-face engagement with BP employees.

We support around 190 schools (primary and secondary) close to our major sites. We offer approximately 300 work experience placements and provide business/technical mentors for individual students and groups of students. We also work with Career Academies UK to provide mentoring and paid internships for 16-18 year olds at our sites in Canary Wharf, Sunbury and Aberdeen.