Teach Secondary Issue 14.2

Learning experience Angela Edwards looks back on the efforts that went into organising Gloucestershire’s largest ever educational employment outreach event – and what local schools got out of getting involved... L abour’s 2024 electionmanifesto included a pledge to guarantee two weeks’ worth of quality work experience for every young person in the country. As many within the education sector will know, however, actually achieving that is a huge task. At C2SGrowth Consultancy, our response was to organise Gloucestershire’s largest ever educational outreach event, aimed at connecting students with employers across the region and inspiring young people about their future career prospects. Connecting students with sectors We successfully hosted the the inclusive C2S Educational Outreach Live event at CheltenhamRacecourse last November, attracting over 1,800 students frommore than 30 schools, and connecting themwith some 55 local companies. As a result of the event, 69 work experience days were awarded to pupils with some of the region’s leading employers, including L3Harris Technology, Renishaw, Kohler Mira and the NHS. Our research had shown that local schools were concerned about the level of soft skills and confidence their students possessed. Post- COVID, many had missed out on opportunities to gain the kind of important social skills that help build the confidence employers look for. For their part, many organisations had ABOUT THE AUTHOR Angela Edwards founded C2S in 2013 alongside Suzanne Hall-Gibbins; C2S has since grown into a thousands-strong business community operating across the South West. For more information, visit circle2success.com or follow @Circle2Success (X) lost previously established relationships with schools. Their inability to deliver work experience placements during the pandemic was also beginning to impact upon their talent pipelines. The main objective of the event was to enable students to engage with a range of businesses, of various sizes, operating across all sectors. These included manufacturers, defence specialists, healthcare providers, finance organisations, charities, law firms andmore besides. Drawing on our knowledge of the challenges faced by businesses when attempting to connect with students, we sought to create amovement for change by reaching out to our C2S business community, comprising thousands of organisations, and offered them the chance to exhibit and become part of the event. Getting buy-in As part of our pre-event research, we met with schools so that we could better understand their priorities, learn what they hoped to gain from the event and confirm the best time within the academic year to hold the event.We made sure to include activities on the day that would support the Gatsby Benchmarks, and liaised with our County Council and Educational Partnership to help spread the word.We also delivered online events for school representatives to explain the event schedule, how the day would be structured and, most importantly, the measures that we would be putting in place to ensure students’ safety. Conscious of schools’ limited time, tight budgets and prioritising of student outcomes, the activities we delivered on the day included financial wellbeing sessions, mental health workshops, CV writing classes and First Aid training, as well as ‘speed networking’ events attended by businesspeople. We soon learned how challenging it was to reach the school representatives we needed to speak to, and how our ‘career contacts’ would sometimes not be able to attend on the day. Internal communication can indeed be difficult; with some schools, we found that certain departments had beenmade aware of the event while others weren’t. Breaking down barriers An important aspect to consider when putting on such events is that schools, businesses and students will all have different needs. By connecting with all parties pre-launch, we were able to uncover howwe could address these requirements and hopefully cater for everyone. One initiative we came up with was ‘student activity cards’, which exhibitors were asked to stamp each time they spoke with a student.We found that these worked exceptionally well, by helping to break down those initial conversation barriers. In all, we recorded 1,517 interactions between students and businesses on the day.We know that manymore took place besides those, but the cards gave us traceability – which, alongside student feedback we received, proved to be invaluable. We chose to host the event at CheltenhamRacecourse, since we knew it would be capable of coping with thousands of people while offering good toilets, parking facilities, transport links, options for refreshments, disabled access and so forth. These are, of course, necessary for schools to see any such event as a safe environment for their students. The more preparation you do beforehand, the more schools can feel reassured and confident in your event when the day comes. 31 teachwire.net/secondary C A R E E R S TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL CAREERS