Thousands ready to go back to their state school to offer career help to pupils with Future First

Thousands of people are waiting for the call to return to their old school to help pupils get started on a successful career.

A YouGov poll for Future First, the charity which has teamed up with The Independent’s sister paper i and the National Union of Students to campaign for state schools’ alumni to help current pupils, reveals that one in 10 students said they were “very likely” to go in and give careers talks. Another 10 per cent said they would be “very likely” to offer current pupils work experience.

But only 4 per cent of ex-state school pupils said they had heard from their old schools recently.

The findings emerged in “Back to School” week when famous faces such as the entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, Labour spokesman Stephen Twigg and footballer Ledley King will team up with nurses, consultants, marketing managers, barristers and musicians to visit their old schools.

The campaign calls on people to sign up to their old school/college networks at ind.pn/backtoschool and turn their Twitter and Facebook profiles to a photo from their school days and share the kind of advice they wish they had been given.