A partnership between StateTalking and cybersecurity company Callsign has led to the creation of a real-world team challenge for schools. The Callsign Challenge will see student teams from five state schools across five Greater Manchester boroughs flex their problem solving, innovation and communication skills. The winners will have the chance to spend a day with Callsign founder […]

Law continues to be a popular career choice for Greater Manchester students. And so senior solicitor Patrick Boyers was well received when he paid a visit to a group of Salford GCSE candidates. Boyers, whose expertise ranges from motoring offences to corporate prosecutions, spoke to Year 11s from The Lowry Academy in Worsley. Posting at […]

A Stockport school celebrated International Men’s Day with a series of inspirational talks. “Stay strong, speak up” was the theme for the day at St Anne’s RC Voluntary Academy in Heaton Chapel. Year 8-10 boys heard from speakers who shared their career journeys and spoke from the heart about how they survived through difficult times. StateTalking […]

StateTalking speaker Megan Lord was pitch perfect when she talked about careers in sport with a group of female students at a Trafford school. We sent the Stockport County FC academy head of performance into St Antony’s RC School in Urmston. She spoke about her own journey from state school to a top job with […]

Speaker, author, podcast host and proud Mancunian Damian Hughes has been named as StateTalking’s first ambassador. In his new role, Damian will help to promote our offer of free inspirational and relatable speakers to Greater Manchester state schools. He will also keep an ear to the ground for potential new speakers, role models and mentors. Damian […]

Year 11s at Bolton St Catherine’s Academy enjoyed meeting lawyer Melissa Jones when she came into school for a careers talk. Organised via StateTalking by Ms Millin, the school said the talk was ‘a fantastic opportunity for our students’. Melissa, who graduated from Lancaster University and College of Law in Chester, is a senior associate […]

This September, Sutton Trust published their first Elitist Britain report since 2019, tracking the educational backgrounds of the country’s top professionals. The report found that ‘elites’ are over five times more likely to have attended a fee-paying school than the general population and 21 times more likely to have gone to Oxbridge. Professions where private […]

The StateTalking impact report 2025 has dropped! Since we began in 2022 we have delivered 274 talks at 51 state schools in Manchester, Stockport, Bury, Tameside, Trafford, Bolton Oldham, Rochdale and Burnley. We have now hit 13,800 student engagements. And none of this would have been possible without the dedication and endless enthusiasm of the […]

Students at a Trafford grammar school got the inside scoop on working in architecture thanks to two StateTalking speakers. The Urmston Grammar School Year 7s heard from Sarah Renshaw and Jessica Bell from architectural & urban regeneration consultants MCAU. The pair talked about their own journeys into the sector, current and possible future pathways into […]