Local projects in London

Go For It

How can you practise your leadership skills and give something back to society at the same time? This is a question JCI London asked two years ago and started Go For It! as a response. Go For It! is a Saturday event when JCI London members spend the day with young people from East London teaching them CV writing and interview skills. In one-to-one sessions the JCI mentor and the young learner discuss the future and what options are available. 

East London is one of the most deprived areas in the UK, where 50% of all children are born into poverty and it is likely that no one in their family is or have ever been in employment. To meet young professionals from JCI on a Saturday sharing their knowledge is a great boost for them. The day is very inspiring for all participants, the young learners, JCI members and the sponsor the law firm Edwin Coe. 

This tradition started two years ago and hopefully will run many more.

Leadership Academy

In October JCI London organised a Leadership Academy for 20 upcoming leaders of the organisation. In addition to members from London, participants came from Reading and Glasgow.

The weekend focused on communicating leadership and branding yourself as a leader.

JCI trainers for the weekend were Simon Bucknall on personal branding, Oxana Andreeva on career development and Solveig Malvik on leadership and trainers outside JCI were Tony Friede and Joe Howard on creativity and leadership and status. The academy lasted from Friday night to Sunday afternoon and included an apprentice style challenge on Saturday and a gala dinner on Saturday evening with presentation of a Senatorship to National President 2010 Lesley Young.

Mini MBA

On 19 June, one of the key business events of 2010 -- the JCI London MiniMBA -- took place at The Yorkshire Grey in Gray's Inn, London. The successful event was attended by more than twenty attendees representing JCI Chambers in the South and even in Yorkshire.

Most of the speakers of the day came from Royal Holloway, University of London, speaking on topics from the secrets of doing an MBA, issues of international human resource and technology management, major incident contingency management in organisations to career coaching by JCI London's own Oxana Andreeva.

From one of the participants: "The training event far exceeded my expectations, as it made me reflect on my career goals and I even managed to refine my career strategies via the this event and speaking to the inspirational training providers, some of whom gave me 1:1 advice! I certainly did not expect to come away from the course with an improved 'action plan' for my career."

Entrepreneurial Academy

A series of 7 events aimed at developing an understanding of what it means to be an entrepreneur.  The project was an idea from a new member and involved 6 team members and 40 participants.

A series of 6 evening seminars allowed members to hear from entrepreneurs on a series of topics.  At each session a panel of leading business people then took questions from the audience.  The academy culminated in a one-day Dragon's Den style team challenge, with a panel of entrepreneurs giving their feedback on the business ideas generated.

It won the national award for Most Outstanding Business Project in the JCI UK National Awards 2009, the European Award in 2010 and has been implemented by other JCI chambers around the world.