Complete the career challenge to find out how HSBC uses data to solve business problems and gain virtual work experience.

FIRST STEP CAREER CHALLENGE:

“Pitch for a Purpose: Plan the Ultimate Charity Event with HSBC”

Your fundraising ideas could make a real-life difference to your chosen charity.

Career Challenge Overview:

HSBC wants to support young changemakers—and that includes you! Can you imagine working with HSBC to host a charity event that helps people near you? In this challenge, you’ll be the team behind the scenes.

Mission:

Your challenge is to act as an event planner pitching for funding from HSBC to host a fictious charity event that gives back to a cause you care about.

You can choose from one of the following pretend charities or pick a charity yourself – choose one that means the most to you and tell us why.

• Increasing woodland habitats with the Nature Trust UK
• Helping feed communities and reduce food waste with the Nourish Food Bank
• Teaching children about managing money with Smart Money
• Rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals with A Place Called Home
• Engaging young people into community support activities with My Neighbourhood

Task:

Use your creativity to plan a themed charity event. You’ll need to use our data and make decisions to make sure your event is both fun and makes a profit for your chosen charity.

You’ll need to decide things like:
What charity to support and its importance to you and your local community.
The best venue to host your event and who you should invite.
What type of food and entertainment you might provide.
What fundraising activities you will do at your event and what local businesses can do to support you.

What this career challenge will involve:

Understanding the opportunity – charities work tirelessly to raise funds, and this challenge will give you a taster of what it takes to pull off a successful fundraising event.
Working with data – you’ll improve your data literacy and logical thinking to put together a plan that is not just fun but can make a profit for your chosen charity.
Present your ideas – you’ll provide your own research, work with our data and create an impactful presentation for HSBC funding approval.

This career challenge can be undertaken independently or as part of a small team – all submitted works will receive a virtual work experience certificate.

NEXT STEP CAREER CHALLENGE:

YEAR GROUPS 10-13 + FE, YEAR GROUPS 11-14 + FE (Northern Ireland) & YEAR GROUPS S4-S6 (Scotland)

“HSBC and The Nature Trust UK – Nature Projects That Make a Difference”

What if your ideas could help shape a greener UK?

Overview:

In this fictional scenario, HSBC is working with The Nature Trust UK on a charitable programme to support nature-based climate action across the UK. Your challenge: act as a climate consultant and pitch a nature project that supports net zero targets in one of five cities—London, Sheffield, Birmingham, Chester, or Leeds. Use real-world data to build a case, balance environmental impact with local needs, and present a solution that HSBC could fund. Your data-driven decisions could shape the future of green finance.

Mission:

Act as a climate consultant and pitch a nature project that supports net zero targets in one of five UK cities: London, Sheffield, Birmingham, Chester, or Leeds.

Task:

Use real-world data to build a case for your chosen project. You’ll need to think carefully about balancing environmental impact with the needs of the local area and explain why your solution is one that HSBC should fund.

What this career challenge will involve:

1. Understand the Problem: Why is nature-based climate action important? How can green projects help fight climate change?
2. Working with Data: Developing your problem solving and data literacy skills to make an informed decision to present your idea to HSBC.
3. Finding Patterns & Trends: Which cities are facing the most urgent challenges?
4. Present your Ideas & Recommendations: Create a presentation to include the city or cities you have selected for funding and explain how your idea could make a real difference.

This career challenge can be undertaken independently or as part of a small team – all submitted works will receive a virtual work experience certificate.