Have a Go Day: Connecting Young People with Real Businesses

Adam Hooker shares how Have a Go Day connects young people with real experiences and local businesses in a genuinely meaningful way.

The government recommends that young people should have at least four meaningful engagements with employers between year seven and year eleven. For the students at the Lincoln Saints Federation, they can knock this out in an hour, thanks to the Have a Go Day that they get to attend every year.

Created in 2022 St Francis School, one of the schools within the federation, alongside its business partner Sureserve (at the time known as Aaron Services) the Have a Go Day invites businesses, organisations, charities, sole traders and just about anybody willing to give their time into the school to engage the young people with an activity.

That first year saw eleven businesses and organisations come into the school. The event now encompasses two sites, with 35 vendors and over 350 young people involved in the 2025 event. According to Lincolnshire County Council, it is by far the largest event of its kind in the county. And, while nationwide data isn’t readily available, it is doubtful there are many larger anywhere in the UK.

An array of attendees have visited past events. From sole traders and small businesses such as a window cleaner, catering businesses and a local graffiti artist through to huge multinational companies including Siemens, Pepsico and Currys. Students have taken part in as varied an activity as measuring the school playground with an estate agent, creating Quavers (well, except the cooking stage), fixing (and breaking) laptops, fixing a toilet, building a wall and, everybody’s favourite, driving a digger!

The benefits to the young people are varied, as the federation caters for such wide-ranging needs. While work experience and site visits are crucial for young people, for many this offers a first contact-point with local employers. It may be the first step in a young person pursuing an interest in work that hadn’t previously contemplated the possibility.

For other students, it is simply a day filled with wonderful experiences, sounds, sights, smells and sensations that they are not accustomed to, bringing to their doorstep opportunities that they would not otherwise have had. While it is amazing to know that the event could be impacting somebody’s chances of employment in years to come, it is equally as special just to see the look of enjoyment experienced on the day. And every visitor usually finds that one student that falls in love with their activity. The pupil that shuns everything else and spends four hours cleaning the same window, the pupil that was so fascinated by turning a key and making a noise they didn’t want to go anywhere else, the child who just wanted to play with sand.

In many ways, the vendors that attend get more from it than the young people. After the event every year, the school is inundated with messages and emails. Ian Hill at Danfoss, who have been attending since year one, told us last year:

“It was, as always, emotional and rewarding to see the interactions of the students with everyone. I still have a massive smile on my face.”

Everybody that has ever attended would say similar.

Describing the day in a meaningful way to anybody contemplating attendance is not an easy thing to do. It is easy to say that the young people engage with activities and have a wonderful time. What does that mean for a business? What can it provide? What will and won’t work? One way is to just get stuck in and bring something along.

Most people find the second show is their favourite, once they have attended and seen how it works then gone away and perfected things. Anybody less confident in that approach, though, is more than welcome to get in contact about popping in on the day. Attend as a visitor, meet the young people and see what other companies are up to.

There are so many ways to meet CSR requirements, but

I doubt any of them are as fulfilling as a Have a Go Day event and spending a day with some amazing young people.

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Author: Adam Hooker - Teacher

Business: Lincoln Saints Federation

Email: adam.hooker@lincolnsaints.com

Photography: Headshot Toby