The Industrial Careers Foundation (ICF) www.icf.org.uk grew from an initiative in the Reading area in the early 1980s. A number of schools wanted to give their students an exciting, non-assessed and worthwhile experience of management in a competitive and dynamic business environment. Particular emphasis was placed upon the transferable skills required for success in any job.

The schools did not want a series of pompous lectures or trivial exercises, and therefore started to develop a number of challenging, team-based activities. These were used to produce events that were quite different from This concept was developed by one of its instigators, Geoff Shaw, with help from The University of Buckingham and a number of major UK companies, including Unilever, Esso and Marks and Spencer.

The ICF has been an independent Educational Charity since 1988 and has delivered events on behalf of around 50 schools and colleges each year since then.

All the members of the new partnership have been associated with the ICF and its work for many years. We have planned and delivered many of the ICF’s conferences and have many year’s experience of delivering its challenging and exciting team-based events.