Debate mate

At its core, Debate Mate is an employability programme which aims to equip young people from
disadvantaged backgrounds with the skills and opportunities to secure meaningful employment. To do
this Debate Mate sets up and runs after-school debating clubs in areas of high educational
disadvantage. We recruit and train top university students to deliver our programmes; they act as
inspiring role models and peer to peer mentors while delivering our tried and tested curriculum, which
uses debating as a vehicle to teach key 21st century employability skills.

Our transformative methodology is proven to develop critical and creative thinking, empathy, resilience,
leadership, teamwork and, above all, core confidence in the young people we work with. Over the past
thirteen years, more than 65,000 young people have benefited from our programmes, which creates
engaged citizens who have an interest in and understanding of the world around them.