The Really NEET Project is based in Sheffield and works with young people, not in education, employment or training to help them gain a qualification and make them more employable (you can find out more about the project at: http://reallyneet.co.uk/). Some of the young people were asked to talk about their achievements during their time on the project and what struck me was how much of a challenge it was for some of them to stand and speak in front of an audience and how proud they looked after having done it!
This links to a project which we have been working on here at Inova and which will come to an end in August. Mind the GAP! has been focusing on the lack of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) sectors and working to encourage more young girls studying these subjects at A-Level or equivalent to continue on to higher education and/or professional work. We have worked with ambitious young women from The Sheffield College studying subjects ranging from IT to engineering to electrics but with one thing in common… Like the young people we saw at the Really NEET Project, a lack of confidence in themselves and the skills they have was holding these young women back from reaching their full potential.
And it’s not just a problem that young people face, many of us still suffer from low confidence as we get older and dread speaking about ourselves in front of an audience. So what can we do to increase our confidence and be able to stand up and tell the world how great we really are?
There is a well-known phrase ….. “fake it till you make it”. Basically if we tell ourselves we can do something, we are building our belief that we are capable. As soon as we believe we are capable, the likelihood is that we will be! If we can get into the routine of telling ourselves that we can be successful, we may soon find ourselves not only handling many more challenges that come our way but also realising that we have been able to do this all along. We need to dig deep with building confidence
This interesting blog post by Adam Sicinski has some top tips on how you can ‘fake it till you make it’ – why not give it a go?!
http://blog.iqmatrix.com/faking-confidence
by Carolyn Usher
International Project Manager & Trainer/Coach
Carolyn joined Inova in 2011 and is a Project Manager, trainer and coach. She is passionate about development and supporting people to achieve their dreams. Carolyn has a PGCert in Coaching and Mentoring from Sheffield Hallam University, BA in Communication and Cultural Studies and a MA in Cultural Policy and Management.