Giving Back...

Should we try and give something back? This is something we have pondered as a business as we committed to provide mentoring...

Should we try and give something back? This is something we have pondered as a business as we committed to provide mentoring support to a local school, Havant Academy. It takes time, resources and the desire to develop new skills in order to communicate successfully with a group of year nines (14 year olds).

We decided to take the plunge and our management team have been working with students to increase employability skills. The sessions have been facilitated by EBP (Education Business Partnership) and we have encouraged the students to write CVs, draft covering letters and hone their interviewing skills by involving them in role play which we made as true to life as possible.

This has been rewarding in more ways than we anticipated as we needed to develop our own skills, in particular how to get through to teenagers and find a hook to get them interested enough to really get something out of the sessions. We completed another programme at the end of January and handed out certificates to our group of students to congratulate them and give them something to add to their portfolio of achievements.

This is the third programme of workshops we have run and the management team are getting the hang of it now! We have learned to cajole, encourage, listen and motivate our students to fill a gap which the school curriculum does not allow time for. Our students now understand the importance of the recruitment interview, their body language, eye contact, handshake and most importantly engaging with an interviewer and making the most of that short window of opportunity to sell themselves.

So yes, in short, we should give something back. We need to involve ourselves in our local community and encourage our employees of tomorrow. Give it a go, it only takes a few companies to dip their toes in the water, to get involved with local students and showcase their company as a potential future employer of choice. We also expect these workshops to lead on to real work experience opportunities and then who knows!

Talk to me if you would like to know how your company can get involved with local students. I’d be more than happy to talk about Fasset’s experience.