Young Governors' Network

The Young Governors’ Network (YGN) supports and encourages young governors and trustees by allowing them to:

share their experiences
address challenges and opportunities
create relevant and sustainable connections

Informal networking events

Our termly virtual meetings provide an informal opportunity for young governors and trustees to share and reflect on their experiences, focusing on relevant skills and behaviours such as influencing and questioning.

All serving governors and trustees aged under 40 are welcome at YGN meetings – attendees do not need to be a member of the NGA or YGN, so please do share this information with your governing board and other networks. If you, a friend or colleague is interested in finding out more about governing, please do come along. Expressions of interest should be emailed to ygn@nga.org.uk.

Why under 40?

NGA's annual governance survey 2022 found that young people aged under 40 continue to be significantly underrepresented in school governance. There is a higher proportion of volunteers aged 70 and over (21%) than there is aged under 40 (6%). An even smaller proportion reported being under 30 (1%), compared with 2% aged 80 years or older.

We believe that governing boards should reflect the community they serve and wider society, and that increasing diversity on boards should be a priority for all schools and trusts. Supporting young governors and trustees– and growing the number of young people involved in school governance – is essential to bring a broad range of perspectives to discussions and decisions, as well as provide role models for young people. NGA is therefore encouraging more young people to get into school governance through its Everyone on Board campaign.

training small group of three in a discussion

Joining the YGN

Email your name, school and location to ygn@nga.org.uk to join the YGN – it's free and you don't need to be an NGA member. You'll be the first to know about future meetings, can join our closed LinkedIn group to meet other young governors, and have the opportunity to shape the network's development. You can also follow us on Twitter.

Not under 40 but still want to help?

While the network serves those under 40, the support of all governors and trustees is greatly appreciated. Please encourage young members of your governing board and those in your other networks to register their interest. You could also make a point of bringing your young governors along to NGA member events and speaking to them to ensure they are confident and effective in their role.

We'd also love to hear from you on a range of themes including why governing boards might find recruiting and retaining young governors a challenge, why governing boards believe having young governors is important, what diverse governing boards have done to attract young governors, and any successes or challenges you may have had in this area. Do ask us any questions or share your stories by emailing ygn@nga.org.uk.

Myth-busting governance series

NGA has teamed up with Eteach to create a series of short webinars debunking common misconceptions about young governors. To watch, visit the webinars page.

As part of this collaboration, Eteach has published a blog piece written by NGA's Samuel Tranter. This can be found on the eteach website.