At an Inspiring the Future event, young people hear from volunteer role models in their communities, learn about different jobs and why people love doing them, as well as their pathway and challenges they faced along the way. The programme is based on local and international research which shows that young people’s career aspirations are narrow and limited by unconscious bias.

Inspiring the Future relies on volunteer signing up to be role models.

Target audience

Volunteer role models

Anyone aged 18 or over can become a role model. The campaign targets people who are already interested in volunteering, and aims to convince them that Inspiring the Future is a good way to give back to their communities.

New Zealanders generally do not like to “toot their own horn”, so people often think their job or story is not interesting enough to share. However, the programme needs a wide range of role models, so students can see the many careers available to them, and can meet role models like themselves.

Schools

The campaign also encourages schools to sign up to the programme and host an event for their students.

Campaign approach

The campaign encourages people to sign up to be Inspiring the Future role models. It explains why Inspiring the Future is important and shares personal experiences from role models.

In order to be inspiring and authentic, the campaign uses videos and photos featuring tamariki and role models who have taken part in events.

The role models in the campaign represent a diverse range of New Zealanders from a range of jobs and industries, so as many people as possible can relate to them, and see that they too can be a role model for tamariki.

Videos

Social media ads

Print ads

Inspiring the Future Aotearoa