Careers initiative’s delight at awards shortlisting

A careers initiative backed by Derby City Council has expressed its delight at being shortlisted for a regional award.

E4E, along with numerous Marketing Derby Bondholders, was recently named as a finalist in East Midlands Chamber’s Derbyshire Business Awards.

Set up in 2014 and led by manager Arshad Iqbal, it provides CV writing workshops, mock interviews, mentoring and a ‘Dragons Den’ style Enterprise Challenge Day, where pupils pitch a project to business leaders who volunteer for the session.

To date, the project has helped almost 50,000 young people and has 600-plus volunteers from various sectors across the city and county.

Companies who are involved with E4E include global organisations such as Rolls-Royce, Alstom and Toyota as well as small businesses such as Colleague Box, MacMartin and Project D.

E4E has been shortlisted in the Education and Business Partnership category, alongside fellow Bondholder DBC Training.

Mr Iqbal said: “I am absolutely over the moon that E4E has been shortlisted for these awards. There are some brilliant organisations who are also on this shortlist, so competition is tough.”