The Right Ethos is 13 years old this month. And since the start we have always had inexperienced or no experienced, but keen, individuals looking to break into the campaigns and external affairs sector.

It was clear that these people didn’t know where to start their careers and with a little bit of guidance could focus their efforts and get them of the first rung of the career ladder. So, we started offering Career Coaching. We have done this not as a money-making exercise, it’s less than 1% of our income, but as a service – we basically break even on it.

We have never increased our hourly fee for career coaching over the 13 years and accept that often 1 hour is enough as we intensify the session and give as much information as possible. Full-time Career Coaches seem to offer £100-£200 for an hour session and only offer them as a multi-package of sessions.

But I remember back 26 years ago when I started volunteering in Shelter’s public affairs team – we didn’t call it anything as glamourous as an internship back then. The first intern I remember was Monica Lewinsky and she didn’t become known until the end of the nineties.

I was understandably naive and just didn’t understand how to do interviews and failed badly. I had kind support of experienced Shelter colleagues with my CV and applications. The late Iain Pigg, who managed me and also Ben Summerskill who went on to be the Chief Executive of Stonewall.

It is this kind support that Iain and Ben offered me that I now wish to replicate for 26 working class individuals looking to break into the campaigns and communications sector – 2 for each of the 13 years of The Right Ethos.

We are offering 26 free Career Coaching sessions for working class individuals right at the start of their career – under 26 and who have never had paid work in the sector.

To start this off, Campaign Bootcamp will be helping us to identify the first 3 individuals. I worked with Johnny Chatterton, Campaign Bootcamp’s CEO and Founder whilst we were both at the Burma Campaign UK. I have always been impressed with their genuine commitment to enabling working class individuals to campaign effectively and they will be helping us to identify some initial beneficiaries.

To find out more about Campaign Bootcamp, please read their newly released Annual Report