Be Yourself Brilliantly!

A 3-hour workshop

Be Yourself Brilliantly! is a 3-hour workshop for young people aged 16 – 24. It raises participants’ awareness of soft skills, helps them see the value in these skills for employability and personal wellbeing, and gives them the tools to develop their soft skills now and in future.

This workshop is a stand alone session, and also acts as an introduction to our 7-session programme, Soft Skills for Success.

Workshop Content

Group experiential activities are supported by a lively visual presentation, discussion, and worksheets – all designed to make the learning process both fun and memorable. Participants reflect on their own soft skills, realise why these abilities are so important for employability and wellbeing, and understand how to develop and provide evidence of them. This empowers them, engendering an intrinsic motivation to change.

Upon completion of the workshop, all participants receive a copy of the book Be Yourself Brilliantly!, an ‘I’m a Barrier Breaker’ badge, and a certificate of attendance.

The 5 areas covered in a BYB! workshop include:

1. Leadership & knowing yourself
2. Relationships & communication
3. Confidence & establishing boundaries
4. Structuring your life & time management
5. Creativity & imagination

Workshop Outcomes

There is now extensive research proving that soft skills development leads to improved life chances, by increasing employability, wellbeing, and resilience. Based on this research, along with our experience, we expect the following outcomes for participants:

• An understanding of what soft skills are, why they are of value, and how to develop them
• The ability to discuss soft skills and provide evidence of those they have
• Improved employability
• Greater self-awareness
• Increased confidence
• Better listening skills
• A deeper consideration of their life and what they are capable of achieving

What teachers said about ‘Be Yourself Brilliantly!’

“Barrier Breakers Foundation delivered a series of outstanding Soft Skills training sessions to the students at CONEL…I would highly recommend this to all educational institutions as a key workshop for developing students’ soft skills to increase their employment and life opportunities.”

Anthony Robinson, Quality & Learner Experience Manager, College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London

“All students left the BYB! workshop with an understanding of what soft skills are and their importance now and also later on in a future place of work. They understood that, as important as qualifications are, if they do not have the soft skills they will not be successful.”

Nil Tuptuk, Teacher, Northumberland Park School

“The overwhelming message after speaking with the students was that it was a very positive session, especially in terms of exploring employability skills. They felt more empowered – they had not recognised that they actually held these skills. This skill set was new to almost all of them.”

Tom Pateman, Teacher, Highgate Wood School

“I would confidently recommend Barrier Breakers’ programme. It provided our learners with a wealth of knowledge in a fun and interactive way. Truly inspirational!!”

Karina Grace, Student Engagement Coordinator, City and Islington College

What participants said about ‘Be Yourself Brilliantly!’

“I like the idea of soft skills and I think it’s very much needed these days.”

“This gave me ideas for real life.”

“I learnt not to be afraid of making mistakes.”

“It was amazing.”

“It can give you a different perspective of life itself.”

“I hadn’t thought about most of the questions and the people here made me think about it, about how to grow.”

“It’s so useful.”

“It’s great for us to do this kind of thing.”

“I liked talking about my thoughts, thinking about what I really want, about who inspires me.”

 “It’s very different and interesting.”

“The workshop is great and helps build confidence.”

“It was really eye-opening, I enjoyed it, and it helped me a lot.”

“I give it 1000 out of 10!!”

“Barrier Breakers’ training is incredibly valuable. Our students are genuinely inspired and energized by it. My thoughts on the work they have done with us is probably encapsulated by a comment made to me by one of our most capable GCSE students after a training session: “Sir, why have we not been doing this before?””

Shoaib Ali, Senior Head of Faculty, DLD College London