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ABOUT US

In March 2013 Alice and Jane met whilst both working at University College London (UCL). It didn't take them long to establish a shared passion for personal values and the need for better career support for young people. Spurred on by reaching the semi-finals of the TeachFirst Innovation Award in August that year, unboxd was founded and incorporated as a limited company, trading on a not for profit basis. In January 2014 unboxd started its first pilot programme at the UCL Academy in Camden, London, where Abigail King first worked with unboxd and later came on as director in April 2014.

 

 

With a background in geology, Jane spent five years working in informal science education and outreach, where her passion for working with and engaging young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, evolved.

 

After finishing her masters at University College London (UCL), Jane then went on to work as a research assistant in student experience and pedagogy at UCL. For her, this role highlighted how young people leave school with so little in terms of knowledge of their futures, and that higher education also has a long way to go to ensure that they prepare their students for employment in the real world.

 

Jane went on to spend eight months working in Munich, Germany for the European Geosciences Union as their educational fellow, that challenged her to work with teachers and young people from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures - from Spain to South Africa!

 

Jane is currently undertaking a PhD in Natural Resourses at the University of Greenwich, looking at drivers of deforestation as a part of a UN project on reducing emissions in developing countries.

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Jane has directed unboxd from its founding to present. 

Abi was the first person in her family to attend university and pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. She has spent 9 years working in education as a teaching assistant, history teacher, middle leader, advanced skills teacher, assistant and deputy headteacher and most recently as a consultant.

 

Within each of these roles Abi worked hard to support her students in making decisions about their futures but realised there were such inconsistencies in advice and guidance, across schools, year, ethnic groups and socio-economic background.

 

Her work across both primary and secondary has made her realise how vital it is for children from a young age to gain a sense of themselves so they can make informed choices in the future and so she welcomes the new statuary guidance on careers advice for children in years 8-13 in England.

 

Abi helped develop our programmes and faciliate pilot events from January 2014 to July 2016. 

Alice sought to support young people to develop an understanding and awareness of what was important to them, their values and how this awareness could help them when making choices and decisions about their future.

 

Alice was a Director of unboxd from March 2013 to September 2015. During this time she helped with the establishment of the company; the development, piloting and implementation of unboxd's values discovery programme and the production of unboxd's first research report: Young people's attitudes to careers and futures.

 

Alice continues to follow her passions as she pursues an MBA at UCL and launches her next venture: When, accelerating gender equality.

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