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A Framework That Travels: Helping Young People Find Their Voice Before the World Tells Them What to Say

How an international school licensed Amarkai's A.C.T. framework and chose it again, year after year.

Amarkai Group • Reshaping Perspectives

3 Years

of renewed partnership

50+ Students

per cohort

International

client (Finland)

Licensed

methodology

Jump to:

Previous Speaking Engagements

Work Experience Week

(Google)

Playing it Safe - Speaking Up

(Toastmasters)

Wellbeing in the Workplace

(LCT International)

The Challenge: When Grades Become a Ceiling

The International School of Helsinki (ISH) approached Amarkai in 2023 to support Grade 10 students ahead of their work experience placements.

The brief looked straightforward. Help students prepare for the world of work.

"Your messaging about growth and potential would be highly beneficial—so often at this age (or any age really) they believe their grades define them and limit their pursuit of different opportunities."

An ISH Programme Coordinator, International School of Helsinki

"The industry has been white, middle-aged, bald – me actually! Many of the NextGen conference activities I see in the market feel patronising. I want this to be different and to give the participants proper support to succeed. I also want to build real expertise amongst groups who are currently underrepresented and often lack the confidence to speak up – especially women in our industry."

Edward Peck, CEO, Asset Finance Connect

The real issue, as ISH's own team named it, was sharper than that. Their students believed their grades defined them and limited their pursuit of different opportunities. A strong result in one subject, or a weak one, was being read as a verdict on what a young person was allowed to become.

That isn't a careers-information gap. It's an identity gap. Students were choosing future paths based on external definitions of success rather than any real sense of who they were or what they wanted.

Left unaddressed, that gap doesn't close with age. It hardens. The student who has decided grades define them becomes the employee who has decided their job title does. The pattern doesn't disappear at eighteen. It just changes shape.

ISH wanted to interrupt that pattern early, while there was still room to choose a different path.

Previous Speaking Engagements

Work Experience Week

(Google)

Playing it Safe - Speaking Up

(Toastmasters)

Wellbeing in the Workplace

(LCT International)

The Turning Point: From a Workshop to a Partnership

Amarkai's first engagement with ISH was a short series of live workshops for around 40 students, built around an early version of Amarkai's A.C.T. framework - Amarkai's proprietary methodology for transforming speaking fear:

Accept

Understand and be okay with your current situation

Create

Design a future that you feel excited to live in

Transform

make changes in your life to obtain and maintain success

The workshops worked. ISH wanted to bring Amarkai back the following year.

Rather than repeat the same format, Amarkai proposed something built to last longer than a single cohort: a licensed programme that ISH could embed into its own curriculum and deliver year after year, without losing the integrity of the methodology behind it.

That proposal became Unleash Your Future, integrated with ISH's own work experience preparation programme. From September 2023, the relationship moved from a one-off booking to a standing partnership.

So what did this partnership produce?

Previous Services Delivered

The Bounce Back - Resilience

(Network Rail)

Digital Inclusion

(Westminster Council)

Beyond the Pitch

(GreenwichB2B)

Partnership in Practice: Real Collaboration, Not

a One Off Sale

A three-year B2B relationship doesn't run on autopilot. It runs on both sides solving problems together.

Across the partnership, Amarkai and ISH worked through:

Operational fixes

Early technical friction around student survey submissions was identified and resolved collaboratively, improving completion rates in later years.

Evolving data handling

As GDPR expectations and ISH's own preferences matured, the programme adapted to alternative access models, without compromising the insight the programme generates.

Built-in iteration

Following a formal lessons-learnt review after year one, Amarkai consolidated and restructured programme content, redistributing material and adding a new feature designed to make the content land more directly with students.

Audience adaptation

In 2025, the partnership shifted its primary cohort from Grade 10 to Grade 9, giving students more runway to engage with the material before their work experience placements. Amarkai adapted relevant programme touchpoints to suit the younger audience and developed additional content to gain buy-in from parents, teachers and other 'overseers' of the cohort.

This is what a mature licensing partnership looks like. Not a static product delivered once and left alone, but a methodology that flexes with a client's evolving needs while staying true to its foundation.

Previous Services Delivered

Bridging the Gap - Networking

(Working Options Symposium)

Pitch Perfect

(Northeastern University London)

Paving the Way - Black History Month

(Bacon's College)

The Impact: A Partnership Renewed Three Years Running

Unleash Your Future launched with ISH in September 2023. It was renewed for the 2024-2025 academic year. It was renewed again in August 2025, this time extending to a new cohort.

Across that period, the point of contact at ISH changed more than once. Priorities shifted. The school's own internal programme evolved alongside it. And still, each year, the same outcome: ISH chose to continue.

That is the headline result. A licensed methodology that has outlasted multiple changes in personnel and been judged worth renewing by a new generation of decision-makers each time.

The strongest evidence isn't a single statistic. It's the renewal itself, repeated through staff turnover, without Amarkai needing to chase or persuade.

Feedback from inside the school has been consistent across the partnership:

"The programme provides real world application of skills, behaviours and tools to support students in their development."

ISH Programme Coordinator

"I can't wait to bring the packet home to show my mother, who will also gain insight from it."

ISH Student

"Anthea's course helped me leave my comfort zone and try to get a job that was more within my interests, instead of just picking one that looked easier."

ISH Student

"The workplace internship preparation helped me to think differently about who I am as a human. I had never really thought about what I wanted, or who I was, or what my values were. This gave me the chance to do that... I just don't think anyone had ever asked me some of the questions that Anthea's program did."

ISH Student

ISH has rated the programme content 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

Previous Services Delivered

The Bounce Back - Resilience

(Network Rail)

Digital Inclusion

(Westminster Council)

Beyond the Pitch

(GreenwichB2B)

Why This Should Matter to Your L&D Strategy

You've just read a case study about teenagers. Here's why it belongs on your desk.

Look at your own organisation.

  • The high performer who goes quiet in the room where speaking up is needed.

  • The emerging talent with the skill, but not the presence to back it.

  • The capable manager who can hit a target but can't articulate where they're actually headed, or why.

None of these are a skills gap. You've already trained the skills. It hasn't stuck.

It's the same gap ISH identified in their own students, just further along.

Most professionals built their careers from external definitions of success; the next promotion, the expected title, the safe move, without ever properly working out who they are or what they actually want. That unfinished work doesn't go away. It shows up later as disengagement, as leaders who can't decide without validation, as talent you developed and then lost because the role never felt like theirs.

This case study is proof that a methodology built to close that gap can be licensed, embedded and trusted to run inside an organisation, year after year, without Amarkai needing to be in the room every time.

That's not a school solution. That's an L&D delivery model.

Previous Services Delivered

Bridging the Gap - Networking

(Working Options Symposium)

Pitch Perfect

(Northeastern University London)

Paving the Way - Black History Month

(Bacon's College)

About Amarkai

Amarkai is a boutique London consultancy helping professionals and organisations address what holds people back from speaking up, stepping forward and showing up as themselves.

Most development work teaches technique first. Amarkai works the other way round, addressing mindset before method, because confidence and clarity aren't skills you bolt on. They're foundations you build.

At the centre of every engagement is the A.C.T. framework: Accept, Create, Transform. It underpins Amarkai's keynotes, one-to-one coaching, organisational cohort programmes and licensed methodologies alike. The framework doesn't change depending on the audience, because the barriers it addresses: fear, uncertainty and lack of self-knowledge, aren't audience-specific either.

Amarkai brings over 20 years of learning and development experience, with focused work since 2021 helping professionals find their voice, and has worked with hundreds of people across keynotes, workshops and programmes, from young people networking for the first time to senior leaders preparing for the most important presentation of their careers.

The ISH partnership demonstrates one way of working with Amarkai: a licensed methodology, embedded into an existing curriculum and renewed independently of any single point of contact. It is one of several ways Amarkai works with organisations. Whatever the format, the foundation stays the same.

Previous Services Delivered

The Bounce Back - Resilience

(Network Rail)

Digital Inclusion

(Westminster Council)

Beyond the Pitch

(GreenwichB2B)

Ready to Talk?

If you lead L&D, leadership development or talent strategy, and something in this case study sounded familiar, that wasn't an accident.

Maybe your people are capable but won't speak up. Maybe your emerging talent has the skill but not the self-belief. Maybe your leaders can hit a number but can't name a direction. Maybe you've run the standard training and watched it fade within a quarter.

Let's talk about what a sustainable solution to that looks like for your organisation.

Free Resources:

Previous Services Delivered

Bridging the Gap - Networking

(Working Options Symposium)

Pitch Perfect

(Northeastern University London)

Paving the Way - Black History Month

(Bacon's College)

Frequently Asked Questions

If you still cannot find the answer you are looking for, click the link above to book a call.

Why move from a workshop to a licensed programme?

A workshop creates a moment, which can have sustainable impact. However, ISH needed something that could live inside their curriculum across a full academic year, on an ongoing basis, and be renewed independently of any one person delivering it.

Licensing the methodology solved that, while also extending the programme's reach. Rather than supporting one cohort in one room, the same methodology now reaches a new group of students every year, multiplying its value without multiplying its cost.

Does the A.C.T. framework only work with one type of audience?

No. It underpins Amarkai's work across keynotes, coaching and organisational programmes, delivered for audiences including financial services, rail, professional services and education, with individuals ranging from teenagers preparing for their first internship to senior executives preparing for the biggest presentation of their career.

The framework holds because the barriers it addresses, fear, uncertainty and lack of self-belief, show up the same way regardless of sector or seniority.

Can this kind of partnership work for a corporate organisation?

Yes. Amarkai works with organisations in whichever way best fits their needs, the size of their team and how quickly they want to see change.

For some, that means a regular keynote or workshop, returning for each programme to refresh and build on the message, in the same way Amarkai partners with organisations like Network Rail.

For others, particularly those with their own L&D or training capability, it means licensing a methodology to embed long-term, reducing reliance on external delivery while keeping the framework consistent.

Neither option is the "upgrade" version of the other. The right starting point depends on your goals and that's the first conversation worth having.

Is this only relevant to schools?

No. This case study happens to involve a school because that's the client relationship.

The model, a licensed methodology that's adapted and renewed over time, is directly relevant to any organisation building internal capability around mindset, confidence, public speaking anxiety or communication.

If your teams struggle to speak up in meetings, avoid presenting to senior stakeholders, or have high performers who go quiet exactly when visibility matters most, the same underlying methodology applies. The audience changes. The barrier doesn't.

How does Amarkai handle data and consent in long-term programmes like this?

Amarkai works with each client to ensure data handling evolves in line with best practice and the client's own policies, including moving toward more privacy-conscious models as a partnership matures.

This case study demonstrates what becomes possible when organisations recognise that confidence and self-belief are genuine psychological foundations requiring proper support, not just another item on a development checklist.

The shift from uncertainty to authentic self-direction doesn't happen by chance. It happens through psychology-informed methodology, sustained delivery and genuine care for the people experiencing the fear, whether that fear shows up as a student avoiding a career conversation or a professional staying silent in a meeting that mattered.

Your talented people have valuable perspectives worth sharing. A lack of self-belief shouldn't silence them.

What becomes possible when you address the mindset first?

Amarkai Ltd | Glossophobia Specialists | London, UK

Transforming speaking anxiety into authentic confidence through the A.C.T. framework and UPGRADE methodology

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