The Higher Education Policy Institute found only 6% of university students feel "confident" navigating the reality of sex and relationships. Similarly, in July this year, the Women and Equalities Select Committee stated sex education is "under-supporting" students to navigate "dangerous" situations.
The impact of this is widespread. The United Nations recently found 97% of young women experience sexual harassment in public on a regular basis and school inspection body Ofsted found sexual abuse is "normalised" across the country.
Ofsted concluded students often feel unable to report their experiences, leaving teachers and senior leaders unaware of the consent-related risks they are responsible for mitigating. Numerous other reports show similar ineffective reporting procedures can be found in workplaces, meaning harmful sex and relationships misconceptions go unchallenged at every stage of our life.
I believe sex education is broken in this country.
My 'Unlocking Potential' project can help fix it. With this award, my organisation will create the UK's first AI-enhanced anonymous surveying platform for schools and businesses to track the problems students and employees face in terms of sexual harassment, homophobia, racism, inequalities and sexism. Schools and businesses can then test the effectiveness of strategies we can help them deploy to tackle these problems, against the data our platform will routinely collect.
This idea is innovative for a myriad of reasons, including it disrupts the dominant governance structure of sex education. The platform will ensure sex education addresses problems students and employees actually face rather than those senior leaders assume occur. Sex education should never be a tick-box exercise.
It's time to give students and workers a voice and the power to shape the sex education and safeguarding support they receive.
This project will build on my previous success campaigning to end tampon tax. My petition gained 300,000 signatures, support from leading global figures such as President Obama and led to the establishment of the Tampon Tax Fund, through which almost £100m was donated to female-focused charities, and to the end of tampon tax in the UK.
I know what it takes to speak up and tackle stigmas related to sex education. Now, I was to help schools and businesses do the same for the benefit of their students and employees.
My platform can help ensure the UK is the most inclusive and welcoming place for anyone to study and work, no matter their background.