Breaking down barriers to accessing career opportunities is one of techSPARK’s key focuses as an organisation. There are a multitude of problems surrounding talent in tech, from closing skills gaps to boosting diversity and representation, but thankfully there are people in our community with a mission to solve these problems. 

One of these organisations is the startup Not Impossible. The EdTech company was founded just last year in 2023, and the two-person team are making strides to place young people into that first step of the career ladder.

We caught up with co-founder Emma Colwill to learn more about what their journey so far and plans for the future ahead.

1 – In your own words – what do you do?

We’re Not Impossible – a new online marketplace on a mission to fuel social mobility across the South-West by fixing work experience for less advantaged young people. Our microplacements (1-hour to 1-day) make hosting work experience easy and beneficial for busy employers.

We provide opportunities for all young people to find work that matters to them, whilst helping employers meet talented young people (16-25) from less-advantaged backgrounds via our local educator partnerships.

2 – What’s the most exciting thing about what you’re doing?

The most exciting thing we’re doing is taking a whole new approach to work experience by smart-matching young people with employees at organisations doing work they care about. We’re using psychometric testing based on the latest behavioural science to create like-minded connections. This increases the opportunity for relationship-building and meaningful experiences.

Increasing young person-employee matches and lowering the time commitment through microplacements makes work experience more accessible and beneficial. It’s exciting to see this being the catalyst for local SMEs to sign up and widen opportunities for young people across the region.  

3 – What are you most proud of so far?

One of the things we’re proud of is partnering with the UWE Cares programme, which helps student carers, care leavers and estranged students with inclusive support and enhanced opportunities to enable them to succeed. Our model removes the need to find work experience through family connections; therefore, this programme has even greater meaning. 

4 – What have you found most difficult about being a startup?

Being a startup is the chance to create impact with something new and learn loads in the process, which we’re soaking up! 

The biggest challenge has been the end-to-end process of signing up larger organisations. People are enthusiastic at an individual level, but it can then be a slow process aligning internal teams and dealing with admin hurdles to close agreements. Our SME employers have significantly faster decision-making cycles!

5 – What would you do differently if you started now?

On reflection, we’d have gone public on social much earlier. Cold outreach to organisations was effective but slow whereas spreading the word of our microplacement movement on social is helping build momentum through multiple channels.

6 – Where do you think you’ll be in 12 months?

Our ambition is to have placed x1000 16-25-year-olds in some amazing organisations, with a significant proportion landing jobs, meaning we’ll truly be able to say we’re fuelling social mobility. 

7 – What tools/people/services/organisations from the cluster have helped you most?

We’re grateful to have had support and encouragement from within the cluster and beyond! The enthusiasm from the educator careers teams and encouragement from the purposeful businesses, many of them using tech to drive innovative and more sustainable ways of working, has been a huge source of constructive feedback and energy. 

8 – What’s the best thing about the Bristol & Bath tech cluster?

We share the techSPARK view that the Bristol and Bath tech community is one of the most exciting in Europe. It’s a thriving, entrepreneurial space with creativity, new inventions and encouraging people. We’re keen for our young people to be inspired, experience and find opportunities within that. 

9 – Who will you be nominating for a SPARKie next year?

At the time of writing this nominations have closed for 2024, but we’re excited to partner with Matter, winner of The Hardware Award in 2023. Looking forward to seeing the winners this year!

10 – Where can we find out more about you?

Discover more about our microplacement movement and the work we’re doing at www.teamnotimpossible.com. We’re growing our community of host organisations and are always keen to hear from people who want to be involved at hello@teamnotimpossible.com.

Shona Wright

Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to. She also oversees TechSPARK's social media, sharing the latest updates on everything from investment news to green tech meetups and inspirational stories.

edtech inclusion Startup for 10 talent