Capgemini’s junior talent collaborate with The Prince’s Trust to improve the Future Steps app

Our partnership with The Prince’s Trust

Capgemini has a longstanding relationship with The Prince’s Trust dating back over twenty years. The work undertaken together has enabled us to support thousands of young people through a variety of different programmes and projects, with Capgemini employees volunteering as mentors and supporting initiatives. In 2022, Capgemini was shortlisted at The Prince’s Trust Partnership Awards as one of the charity’s ‘Partners of the Year’.

When working with charities, we always look for opportunities where we can help make a material difference to how technology is used to deliver an organisation’s goals. Part of our contribution over the years has therefore been to help The Trust effectively deploy digital capabilities, such as when delivering services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Future Steps app

Future Steps is a 10,000-steps-a-day challenge run by The Prince’s Trust in February annually. Those taking part track their daily steps for the month and fundraise through a dedicated app.

The charity reached out to us for support due to our expertise in mobile technology and historic support for the challenge. As a result, we have worked together closely throughout 2021 and 2022 to improve the app and also sponsored the Future Steps event.

Last year, Capgemini supported The Prince’s Trust to launch a new, more inclusive app to support the challenge. This meant that wheelchair users were able to take part for the first time.

For the 2023 Future Steps challenge, the team at The Prince’s Trust wanted to further develop the app. This included adding the ability to use additional wearable devices to track steps, changes to the overall user experience (making the app even slicker), plus the introduction of gamification to keep people going during those dark February mornings and evenings! The team also focused on the integration of JustGiving, to make fundraising easier for participants.

A key learning opportunity for Capgemini’s junior talent

At Capgemini, we welcome hundreds of new graduates and apprentices in a typical year. We are always looking for opportunities to upskill and expose them to exciting new projects – and what is more exciting than a project that really makes a difference?

With the focus of The Prince’s Trust being young people, the charity was very supportive of Capgemini’s junior and emerging talent spearheading the project with the right support mechanisms in place. The project created a fantastic environment which has really helped to accelerate their learning.

Apprentices and graduates from across the business were onboarded onto the Future Steps project. These included recent graduates from Capgemini’s programme in partnership with Code Your Future, the not-for-profit organisation that trains socially excluded people as software engineers. Senior support was also put in place including a senior engineer, senior designer and a developer to coach and mentor the team.

Capgemini’s junior talent were empowered to get on and drive the project forwards. They were given day-to-day responsibility and accountability for the project and the flat hierarchy allowed direct exposure to The Prince’s Trust team in an open and collaborative, yet safe environment – not something that is always possible at a junior level.

Developing the app

The Prince’s Trust and Capgemini team worked together throughout 2022 to improve the app ready for the February 2023 challenge. A huge amount of work was undertaken during this period to improve the design and user experience of the app.

An ethos of inclusivity remained at the heart of the app development project, with all changes to the user journey reviewed for usability by those walking, running or rolling the challenge. All language used was thoroughly reviewed to ensure inclusivity.

The 2023 Future Steps challenge app is now live and offers a slicker and more inclusive experience than ever before. It can be downloaded from both the Apple and Android app stores. We are excited for those taking part in the challenge to try it and welcome any feedback.

Overall, the project has been a huge success. The Capgemini team involved benefitted enormously from the project and were able to learn a wide range of skills, from app development and design through to project ownership working in close collaboration with The Prince’s Trust. Due to the nature of the multi-disciplinary project and team makeup, they were also able to gain an insight into different areas of our business and build their network within Capgemini. The team can now take this experience and skills learned and apply it to future client work.

“Taking part in the Future Steps App project was a real stretch learning opportunity for me. It allowed me to step up to the role of a Business Analyst and Product Manager giving me vital experience in product delivery”
– Ayoola Fajuyigbe, Business Analyst

This project truly represents digital inclusivity at its best. Not only did it use technology to help maximise opportunity for The Trust to support young people at a time when this is greatly needed, it also provided the opportunity for our junior talent to learn skills that they can take forward in their careers.