Form the Future hosts its first virtual work experience pilot with five leading companies.
For many students, work experience is the first taste of what their future career might be like. Over the past year, thousands missed out on the chance to spend time with an organisation and work on real life projects and tasks to build key employability skills.
As we emerge from Covid-19 restrictions, questions remain for many schools and students about how work experience can be run in a safe way – while still having a lasting impact on young people.
Form the Future is pleased to have facilitated and hosted a successful virtual work experience pilot with 195 Year 10 students from Nene Park Academy.
After weeks of hard work and planning to ensure that students were exposed to different industries and job roles – while working on key skills such as confidence, communication, team work and creativity – our virtual work experience week saw a different company join students each day to work through an interactive project.
Monday saw volunteers from Metro Bank task students with creating a new banking product for the UK market.
On Tuesday, Morgan Sindall Construction took students through the lifecycle of a build, to introduce the construction industry and the variety of roles available.
Marshall Centre joined students on Wednesday, introducing the Marshall Group of companies and roles before tasking students to form a mock crisis consultancy team to work on skills that many employers look for when hiring.
Reflecting on their virtual work experience day, the Marshall Centre team said:
“The team at Marshall Centre thoroughly enjoyed delivering the virtual work experience day in partnership with Form the Future.
“The students were engaged throughout the day, demonstrating some impressive creative problem solving and critical thinking skills, which are vital in the job market of today and tomorrow. It is so important that businesses work with schools to expose young people to as many different career paths as possible.”
On Thursday, Cambridge University Press tasked students with creating a launch campaign for vocational learning materials, which saw students create mood boards, book covers, back cover copy and social media posts.
Don Young, Design Lead at Cambridge University Press, said:
“To say this sort of thing is out of my comfort zone is a bit of an understatement, but I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the day and being able to share my experiences and knowledge with students. I feel a great sense of satisfaction having seen the students really engage with the tasks, their amazing work and the positive comments that have been coming through!”
Rounding out the week, Anglian Water worked with the students to better understand how to engage with young people, while exploring the career pathways on offer at the company.
Commenting on their experience of the week, one Year 10 student said:
“Last week was a very beneficial experience, it gave me a great insight into different employment sectors, as well as job roles that I have never heard of before. Listening to employees and apprentices was very informative, as it gave us a first-hand viewpoint of the occupation.
“The skills I’ve developed over the course of last week include more confidence in my presenting and communication skills. Doing the activities that the companies provided us gave us a new perspective of the work that we would have to do on a day-to-day basis.”
Following the successful pilot, Form the Future is pleased to open this offer to schools and businesses. If you’d like to find out more about how we can facilitate virtual work experience at your school, or if you’d like to find out more about how your business can get involved, please contact Mary Steel, Work Experience Coordinator.
