Stewarts has partnered with education charity Future Frontiers for a sixth consecutive year, welcoming a group of Year 10 students to its London office as part of the charity’s career coaching programme.
The programme forms part of Stewarts’ long-term commitment to social mobility and widening access to education, careers, and the legal profession. Since signing the Social Mobility Pledge in 2020, the firm has worked to create opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds through initiatives including Future Frontiers, a work experience partnership with the Social Mobility Foundation and the Stewarts Access to Law scheme.
These initiatives sit within Stewarts’ broader diversity and inclusion strategy, which recognises socio-economic background as an important aspect of diversity and seeks to ensure that talented individuals can thrive regardless of their starting point in life.
How Future Frontiers supports young people to explore their future careers
Future Frontiers is an award-winning education charity that provides tailored careers coaching and access to professional role models, helping young people make informed decisions about their future education and career pathways.
For many students, limited access to professional networks and careers advice can make it difficult to understand the opportunities available to them and the routes needed to achieve their ambitions. Future Frontiers helps bridge that gap by connecting students with business professionals who can share their experiences, answer questions and provide practical guidance.
Through one-to-one coaching, students are encouraged to explore their skills, interests and aspirations while gaining a clearer understanding of the qualifications, training, and experience associated with different professions. The programme helps build confidence, broaden horizons and equip students to make informed decisions about their next steps.
Across the 2026/2027 academic year, Future Frontiers:
- Supported 2,453 young people
- Worked with 51 businesses
- Supported 70 schools
The 2026 coaching programme
This year’s programme saw 15 Stewarts volunteers provide one-to-one coaching to Year 10 students over four structured coaching sessions.
Using a structured coaching framework, students were encouraged to explore their strengths, interests and values while learning about different career paths and the qualifications needed to pursue them. Coaches also helped students understand the options available after GCSEs, enabling them to make more informed decisions about their next steps.
A key part of the programme involved introducing students to professionals working in careers that interested them. These “sector role models” shared insight into their roles, career journeys and the different routes into their profession.
The programme concluded with a “graduation” ceremony, presented by Nadia Krueger-Young, Partner, who provided insight into her own career journey.
By the end of the programme, students had a clearer understanding of the education and career pathways available to them, together with greater confidence in pursuing their goals.
Supporting social mobility beyond Future Frontiers
Future Frontiers is one of several initiatives through which Stewarts seeks to widen access to education, careers and the legal profession.
Through its partnership with the Social Mobility Foundation, the firm hosts work experience students in its London and Leeds offices, providing valuable insight into careers in law and the legal profession.
Stewarts’ commitment to social mobility also extends to entry into the profession through its Stewarts Access to Law scheme. The programme supports talented students from lower socio-economic backgrounds by funding postgraduate legal study, providing maintenance grants and offering a structured pathway into the firm.
Together, these initiatives reflect Stewarts’ belief that talent exists in every community and that everyone should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. This commitment has been recognised by the Social Mobility Foundation, which named Stewarts a Top 75 Employer and subsequently improved the firm’s ranking.
Continuing the partnership
Since partnering with Future Frontiers in 2021, Stewarts volunteers have supported 89 young people through the programme.
The success of this year’s programme reflects the value of tailored careers coaching, professional role models and practical guidance in helping students gain confidence and make informed decisions about their future.
Emily Goddard, Senior Associate and organiser of the programme, comments:
“We would like to thank all participating students, coaches, and the Future Frontiers team for their contribution to this year’s programme. In particular, we extend our thanks to Iola Manville, Senior Programme Manager at Future Frontiers, and everyone involved in delivering and supporting the initiative.”
As the partnership enters its seventh year, Stewarts remains committed to supporting initiatives that widen access to education, careers and the legal profession.
Reflections from the programme
Over four weeks, students and volunteers built meaningful relationships, explored career aspirations and gained new perspectives through shared experiences and conversations.
Before the programme, 25% of the students felt connected to people in jobs that interested them. This rose to 71% by the end of the programme. 100% of students reported that they knew how to find information about jobs and careers by the end of the programme, compared to 63% at the beginning of the programme.
When surveyed, 100% of the students involved in this year’s programme reported that:
- They would recommend the programme to a friend
- They felt clearer about what they need to do to achieve their ambitions
- They felt more confident in sharing their ideas and asking for feedback.
Read what students, Stewarts coaches and Future Frontiers had to say about this year’s programme.
Student reflections
“I would say that my coach has given me a lot of insight into what career I want to do in future. It was truly helpful talking to someone with firsthand experience.”
“You have helped me create a greater idea of what I can do once school is over. My favourite part of the sessions was complaining about the quiz. Thank you for finding the perfect sector role model that was a blend of my favourite things, marketing and fashion. With this, I can finally move forward for my future, and I will not let the time you spent on me go to waste.”
“I’d like to say thank you for coaching me these past sessions. I really enjoyed it! You’ve helped me to see the path I want to take in the future. I really enjoyed working on this together.”
Stewarts coach reflections
“It was a real joy to be part of this experience and to see my student’s confidence grow with each session. The programme is very well structured by Future Frontiers and their approach fosters engaging conversations that were just as informative and interesting to me as I hope they were for my student. It was wonderful to see the Stewarts team dedicate their time to supporting and encouraging these brilliant students to achieve their highest potential. I look forward to being involved again in the future.”
Milda Viela
“I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Future Frontiers programme as a coach. Supporting a student to explore their strengths and future career aspirations was incredibly rewarding, and I found the experience both enjoyable and valuable. I also found it refreshing to gain insight into a sector that was new to me and learn more about the career opportunities it offers.”
Sonia Sachdev
Future Frontiers
“It has been fantastic working with Stewarts this term! The coaches were supporting a group of students with lots of ambition and lots of ideas about their next steps! Each week the pupils were so focused and engaged in their activities, exploring and developing these ideas and this is a real testament to how supportive and engaged their coaches were! It was brilliant to see pupils opening up and becoming more confident in sharing their ideas, as well as coaches going above and beyond to arrange inspiring calls in their students’ preferred sectors everything from filmmakers and jewellery designers to solicitors and orthodontists! I’d like to say a huge thank you to the coaches at Stewarts for ensuring this programme was a real pleasure to help facilitate!”
Iola Manville, Senior Programme Manager
