“It made me feel empowered to help make a change, because even though women have already done a lot, it doesn’t mean we have the freedom to do everything.”

These are the words of one of our partner high school pupils, Elyssia, perfectly encapsulating why Manchester United Foundation has staged its latest careers event at Old Trafford.

Using this year’s theme of International Women’s Day - Accelerate Action - more than 70 students had the opportunity to take part in activities that opened their eyes to careers in different industries, and interacting with professionals from a wide variety of sectors – while reinforcing that there is still much to be done in the fight for equality.

The young people in attendance had the opportunity to take part in some music and DJ activity, brain-training and concentration games, and even spoke with members of the trailblazing Manchester Corinthians women’s football team of the 20th century, who played in spite of the FA ban’s on the female game.

“There was a big variety of activities for us to do,” continued Elyssia, a student at Levenshulme High School. “In quite a few jobs, including football, men get paid more than women, which is something that needs to change. That’s made me feel very empowered and inspired.”

Fellow Levenshulme student, Amira, added: “I’ve enjoyed being around the stadium because I’ve never been here before and I’m a really big United supporter. I enjoyed all the activities, too, they were all really good fun.”

The event was also supported by staff from Manchester United Foundation and club partners DXC Technology and DHL Express, kindly lending their expertise to our young people.

Students from Years 7, 8 and 9, across seven of our partner high schools, were among those participating, taking plenty of wisdom back into their everyday learning to help shape their future aspirations.

“We’ve been learning about how gender shouldn’t affect anything, you can still be you, no matter what,” said Irlam and Cadishead Academy student Poppy.

“I think I will be a lot more confident and take all of the skills that I’ve been taught today into consideration and actually do something with that.”

Another Irlam and Cadishead pupil, Freya, concluded: “We’ve been learning about gender equality; that everyone is the same and we are all equal.

“I feel a lot more confident in my sport, which is football, and much prouder to be a football player.”