What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Shaping Portsmouth

Home
United Kingdom
Portsmouth
Shaping Portsmouth

Directions Website

Transforming Portsmouth Together - through sustainable collaborations and innovative programmes.

Shaping Portsmouth is a community interest company that delivers both a strategic and operational partnership between Portsmouth City Council, Portsmouth businesses, and educational institutions at all levels in the City. Our aim is to run valuable and relevant programmes that support the needs of the City, and the objectives of our partners.

02/11/2026

The Apprenticeship Bus is about opening young people’s eyes to the opportunities available to them, right on their doorstep.

By bringing employers and students together, it gives young people the chance to explore different industries, discover specific job roles and see how apprenticeships can help them earn while they learn.

Everyone featured in this video has been involved with the Apprenticeship Bus and shares how it helps inspire young people, challenge perceptions and open doors to opportunities they may never have considered.

As we celebrate 10 years of the Apprenticeship Bus, we're proud of the connections made and futures inspired along the way.

Are you an employer with apprentices who'd like to get involved? We'd love to hear from you! Fill out the form linked in the comments to find out more about getting your apprentices on board!

🎥 Hear what they have to say!

Royal Navy, Portsmouth City Council, QinetiQ, HTP Apprenticeship College

31/10/2026

✨ Shaping Portsmouth Weekly Roundup ✨

📖 We celebrated International Mentoring Day at Fratton Park, at an event hosted by Julia and Anne Stevens. It was also great to meet Chris Dodds and pick up a copy of his book, Navigating Leadership, reflecting on his experience in the Royal Navy.

🤝 Dave and CP attended the latest Portsmouth Pride Stakeholder Network meeting, a programme supported by Shaping Portsmouth. It was great to hear that our Patrons, Hampshire Flag Company, have been announced as the network’s latest Main Charity Partner — another demonstration of their commitment to supporting our city.

🧭 Dave and Daniel O’Brien, the new Chair and Co-Chair of the Portsmouth Business Strategy Group, attended the Hampshire Chamber of Commerce AGM. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with outgoing Chair Aaron Butson, who is retiring from HSDC at the end of this term.

🏘️ Dan and Dave held the first planning meeting of the Strategy Group at The George Inn, showing their support for the landlady amid the current threats she is facing. It was lovely to bump into Jane Lamer there, who was also showing her support.

⚽ Dave was at Fratton Park for the first-ever Portsmouth FC Women FA Cup match — and what a result, with a fantastic 4–0 win! The next game is on Sunday 8 November against league leaders Oxford. Any partners interested in joining us through our free ticket offer are very welcome to get in touch.

🥧 This week's mince pie competition entry came from Steff, with a Lidl Deluxe offering. The reviews continue!

27/10/2026

Happy National Mentoring Day!

Behind every successful business journey, there’s often someone who offered advice, shared their experience, or gave them the confidence to take the next step.

Mentoring is about paying that support forward.

Through the free Business Mentoring programme, part of the Portsmouth Business Support Service delivered by Shaping Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council, experienced professionals support local business owners with the knowledge, guidance and confidence to grow.

🎥 Over the past few months, we’ve spoken to mentors, mentees, and workshop coordinators to hear first-hand what the programme means to them and the difference it makes to businesses across Portsmouth.

Their stories show that mentoring isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about sharing what you’ve learned, helping others navigate challenges, and making a lasting impact on someone else’s journey.

Could you be our next mentor?

Your skills, knowledge and experience could be invaluable to a local business owner taking their next step. By sharing what you know, you could help shape the future of a business — and Portsmouth’s wider business community.

Find out more through the link in the comments.

Action COACH Portsmouth & Chichester, SLR Recruitment Solutions Ltd, Citrus Facilites Management

23/10/2026

✨ Shaping Portsmouth Weekly Roundup ✨

🎭 Sarah joined another fantastic Explore Your Future session, this time with Izzy Isaacs of The Mazerine Mentor Programme, The Mazerine Effect and Boogie Brunch. Pupils from Springfield School explored careers in the performing arts, creating their own music video concepts and pitching them to Izzy. The creativity on show was brilliant!

🎓 It was a wonderful evening at the Apprenticeship Awards, celebrating the amazing apprentices and the people who support them across the city. Dave was on the judging panel, while CP attended with City of Portsmouth College. Congratulations to Alison Lee, who won the Ambassador Award!

🏆 Dave also joined Becki Simmons as a keynote speaker at Ark Charter Academy Awards, celebrating some truly inspirational young people.

💼 We held our autumn Portsmouth Business Leaders Forum at The Portsmouth Grammar School 1732 on Tuesday. A big thank you to all our speakers, to everyone who joined us, and The Portsmouth Grammar School for hosting us. It was great to see so many familiar faces and catch up with people from across Portsmouth’s business community!

🚢 Courtnee and Julia attended Visit Portsmouth’s Cruise event at the Guildhall on Tuesday. It was great to engage with local businesses and connect them with our fantastic cruise ambassadors.

🤝 CP and Courtnee attended the Portsmouth Place Partnership Steering Group to discuss how we can support communities to lead more active lives by connecting them with our programmes.

🎙️ Ahead of Talk Money Week (2–6 November), we recorded a special podcast with Natasha Cummings from the Money and Pensions Service, alongside Helen Burden and Anita Fairbrother from Citizens Advice Solent East. Keep an eye out for it!

🏡 Dave and Steff met with Rev Tracey Ansell for a tour of North End Baptist Church, a great community venue. Dave also caught up with Peter Leonard at Home-Start Portsmouth, an important organisation supporting local families.

🏃‍♀️ Some of our Portsmouth Ambassadors, including two of our Volunteer Programme Leads, spent Sunday supporting Portsmouth City Council’s events team at the Great South Run. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

📰 Courtnee received a delivery of Happy News from Lydia Galloway for us to distribute. If you’d like a copy for your organisation, send us a message or ask at your next meeting!

🥧 Our weekly mince pie reviews continued on Monday, with homemade mince pies from Hannah and her mum — plus some frangipane tarts!

👋 And we had a surprise visit from Suzan. Always lovely to see a friendly face pop in!

💙 Another busy week across Portsmouth!

22/10/2026

🚌 Apprenticeship Bus Wrap Design Competition!

This year’s Apprenticeship Bus wrap design competition has once again given local students the chance to get involved and showcase their creativity.

Students from City of Portsmouth College, Fareham College (part of South Hampshire College Group), and Havant and South Downs Alton College took part, putting forward their designs for the bus.

The programme team recently came together to shortlist the entries, reviewing the fantastic designs submitted by students.

The competition is a brilliant opportunity for students to gain project-based work experience, bring their creative ideas to life and see their designs featured on the Apprenticeship Bus — a gallery on wheels that showcases their creativity out in the local community.

As we celebrate 10 years of the Apprenticeship Bus, it’s fantastic to see the competition continuing to grow and open up to even more local colleges. We’ll be sharing more about the shortlisted designs soon.

👀 Watch this space for updates!

20/10/2026

🎙️Reintroducing Steff Jones, our Operations Manager!

💬In this episode, CP Robinson chats with Steff about his role in the Shaping team, how our annual conference has changed over the years and evolved into the upcoming Shaping Summit, what you can expect from the event, and some of the exciting things our three Pillar Leads have been up to recently.

👉Listen to episode 108 of the Shaping Portsmouth Podcast at the link in our bio or wherever you get your podcasts!

19/10/2026

A Sunday well spent at the Great South Run! 🏃‍♀️💙

Some of our Portsmouth Ambassadors, including two of our Volunteer Programme Leads, Anne Stevens and Andrew Starr, joined the team at Portsmouth City Council to help support the event.

It was also great to spot some of our partners out running too! A big well done to everyone who took part 👏

16/10/2026

✨ Shaping Portsmouth Weekly Roundup ✨

🏳️‍🌈 Dave was in great company at Portsmouth Pride Community Festival alongside Anne Stevens, Jane Lamer and Becci Simmons, showing support for the city’s LGBTQ+ community. And of course, our very own CP Robinson had the honour of opening the event!

🏋️‍♀️ Sarah joined Bfit with Billie at Miltoncross Academy for a ‘Have a Go’ Explore Your Future session. Pupils heard about Billie’s career journey, explored the different roles in health and fitness, and discovered the skills that make a great personal trainer — and how those skills can transfer to so many other careers! They even got to design their own circuits using Billie’s equipment. Huge thanks to Billie for inspiring the next generation!

🤝 Dave caught up with our partners Rob Milner from Neon Numbers, our accountants, and Darren Burnett and Ceri Turner from Inspire Futures. Great to keep those conversations going and strengthen our partnerships!

💙 A slightly quieter week for us, but still plenty to celebrate, valuable connections being made, and inspiring work happening across Portsmouth!

15/10/2026

If social media access changes, how will you reach tomorrow’s audiences?

Introducing Rachel Arthur, Chief Learning Officer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, our second key note speaker to be announced for the Shaping Summit 2027!

In RIP Social Media, Rachel explores digital youth engagement beyond social platforms and how young people are using AI ethically to accelerate learning, challenge established approaches and reshape the modern workforce.

Rachel is responsible for developing learning experiences, products and supporting the professional development of computer science teachers all over the world.

Join us at the Portsmouth Guildhall on Thursday 21st January 2027.
Book your place at the link in the comments!

15/10/2026

✨ Meet our new Business Pillar Lead, Julia! ✨

Julia is a senior marketing and brand leader with more than 15 years’ experience across B2B and B2C, spanning recruitment, technology, training, manufacturing, FMCG, travel and the charity sector.

Throughout her career, Julia has specialised in untangling complex business challenges, understanding what’s holding organisations back and finding practical ways forward. With expertise across brand strategy, communications, customer engagement, research and insight, she’s passionate about bringing people together around shared challenges and turning ideas into action.

With an MSc in Psychology and an early career in data and insight-led category management, Julia has a real fascination with what makes people, customers and organisations tick. She also brings experience of working with local communities and building partnerships with schools, charities and business groups, including during her time with Budgens.

As Business Pillar Lead, Julia is looking forward to helping Portsmouth businesses make valuable connections, access the right support and find practical ways to overcome challenges and grow.

Welcome to the team, Julia!

Address

Upper 2nd Floor, Portsmouth Guildhall, Guildhall Walk
Portsmouth
PO12AB

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://shapingportsmouth.co.uk/, http://linktr.ee/shapingportsmouth

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Shaping Portsmouth posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.