About us

The Mason Trust has a long history of helping young people in Norfolk and Suffolk to realise their potential, pursue their career aspirations and to take control of their own futures through our one-to-one, group and online provisions.

Background

Yvonne Mason OBE is a Norfolk born business woman with 20+ years experience in the marine industry. She is the Chief Executive Officer of both Future Marine Services and SafeSTS Limited. Throughout her business career, she has been nominated for and won numerous regional and national business awards.

Having sold her former company in 2005,  Yvonne decided to set up The Mason Trust with the mission of giving back to local young people and inspiring them fulfil their potential. She was awarded an OBE in 2020 in recognition of the charity’s dedication to that work.

As a registered charity, the Mason Trust has a board of trustees chaired by Yvonne, and a project delivery team based at The Mason Trust office in Diss.  You can find out more about the Trust members on our website.

What do we do?

Some of the initiatives we are involved in...

Our Mentoring Service encompasses schemes such as our new Step Forward programme, and aims to give young people the help they need and deserve to move forward into employment. Our employment mentors work with candidates on a one-to-one basis, helping to identify and overcome barriers to work. Our programmes are about putting people back in control of their own futures, working with mentors who care and want to make a difference.

We collaborate with county and district councils, government departments, charities, schools, colleges and other young person focused organisations on various projects and initiatives.

Recently we contributed to the LSIF Green Futures project, which aims to ensure the workforce of the future is equipped for Net Zero.  Working with our partners, we produced written content for posters, information boards and elements of an online virtual tour, as well as running a stand in the Green Futures tent at the STEM village for both the Suffolk and Norfolk shows. The individual component materials and activities are available for collaborative or individual partner events in the future, whilst a lot of our green skills jobs information is now available here on icanbea.

We partnered with Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils for the Youth Pledge for Employers project which was completed last year. This endeavour worked with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the New Anglia LEP, to develop opportunities for young people to engage in work-based experience, structured employment and sector related learning. More than 220 participating organisations were profiled here on icanbea… where they can now advertise their offerings directly to local young people.

We operate this (icanbea…) website - a local careers platform and digital careers fair that showcases the best, accessible opportunities the area has of offer young people.  We have hundreds of the region's employers represented on the site sharing their job opportunities and we feature career information for multiple growth industries as well as support tools for things like CV writing.

Our Education Programme is based on school engagement and direct contact with young people through our classroom-based workshops in Norfolk & Suffolk.  We focus on showing them how to look at local labour market information (LMI) and employers - and what this information means for career and work opportunities. We also run sessions on getting a CV up and running and attend select Careers Events with stands and activities.

The Mason Trust's 'Small Change' Grant provides small sums of money to help young people in Norfolk and Suffolk take that next step through education, training, work or along their chosen career path. This limited fund is designed to quickly make a difference to people that have immediate financial barriers to their personal progress.  Awards of up to £75 will be made swiftly for successful individual applications that demonstrate a genuine need and where other funding options have been exhausted.

Find out more

Form more information about our work and how we could help you in any of the ways described above, get in touch at info@themasontrust.org or visit our website.

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