My name is Madeline Hooper, I’m in year 12 of Moulton School and Science College, ready for year 13 in September and I’ve just completed my work experience at Impact Recruitment. As many schools have not been able to offer external work placements to their students in the past couple of years, favouring virtual placements or projects instead, I wanted to share what I’ve learned from my time here and to express how valuable I think it is for students to get a chance to get involved with real businesses when they get the chance.
Despite only being here for week, I feel as though I have learnt valuable skills both from the tasks I have been given and the lovely team of people I was surrounded by. For example, during my time here in the office I learnt how to use software which allowed me to search through thousands of CVs specific to a job description I was given, becoming familiar with important key terms to show suitability for specific job roles, to pass onto team members for further screening. I’ve learnt about recruitment processes, social media for businesses and seen a real team at work!
DAY ONE:
I took the opportunity to get involved in a meeting planning the upcoming week of the industrial team. Here I observed how well each person communicated with each other to complete each task efficiently and to a high standard. The organisation and teamwork shown in the meeting was impressive in terms of how tasks were delegated and allocated to each person, playing to everyone’s strengths and ensuring they got completed.
I learned how the team coached and prepared candidates for interviews they will have with employers, helping them to feel more confident and teaching them the best ways to communicate their skills. Most people feel a little nervous at first and some people will have never had an interview before. The team want to empower suitable candidates to have the best possible chance of getting the job and support them at every stage. This shows the caring nature of, not only the team, but the company itself.
BACK TO SCHOOL ON DAY TWO!
On my second day I accompanied Angela Hooper to Kettering Science Academy to offer a workshop surrounding CVs; how to produce one and how to make them stand out to employers. It was interesting to see how soft skills we use in our everyday life can be presented on a CV to match crucial job roles. The students were so engaged with the workshop as they were introduced into the reality of the working world that they would enter soon. They also got the chance to play at being the recruiter, as they judged a number of CV’s to see if they’d give ‘the candidate’ an interview. It’s interesting to see how many common mistakes we can spot when it’s not our own cv, and there were some harsh judges in the classes- Definitely some future ‘Alan Sugars’ out there!
MORE SCHOOL…
On my third day, I joined one of the Impact commercial team, Ellie, and Angela as they visited Moulton secondary school for a workshop on interview preparation. The students would later take part in mock interviews by local employers, to demonstrate what they had learnt. Our workshop focussed on how, regardless of a lack of real ‘work experience’, they could confidently demonstrate their soft skills to potential employers- such as independence, time management, communication, and team skills. We had a bit of fun where I demonstrated what not to do in an interview- testing the student’s observational skills! Then there were activities where the students got stuck in and thought about their own skills. They all seemed to enjoy the workshop and were really engaged and enthusiastic (confirmed later when we had very positive feedback from the workshop).
BACK IN THE OFFICE
On my fourth day I was taught how to plan social media posts to schedule for the upcoming weeks. I researched topics and national holidays related to the world of recruitment and planned out what the actual post could be, captions and linked hashtags that could allow the posts to be reached by a wider audience. This day really allowed me to improve my IT skills as they weren’t the best. However, this week I have really seen an improvement of my understanding of spreadsheets, emails and accessing files, which is something I would have struggled with before.
NO TWO DAYS ARE THE SAME
I have thoroughly enjoyed completing my work experience with Impact Recruitment. Not only are the team so lovely and encouraging towards each other, constantly pushing each other to achieve their goals and celebrating each other’s achievements, they have created such a hardworking environment where every member of the team is so clearly valued by one another. It was good to see the ‘theory’ we spoke to students about in the classroom, happening in the workplace. The Impact team demonstrate vital soft skills throughout everything they do, whether it be the organisation that they demonstrate within the office or the communication they have between each member.
As someone who has only worked in hospitality, a fast-paced industry, I always had the expectation that an office-based job would be slow paced and, to be brutally honest, possibly quite boring! However, even after just one week, my opinions have changed, and I can honestly say it’s quite the opposite here at Impact!
In conclusion, I would encourage all pupils to take up a work experience placement when the opportunity comes up. You will learn more than you realise. Students can also learn a lot from external visitors coming into school again, even (perhaps especially) the students who don’t usually enjoy school. I would encourage all businesses to consider opening their doors up to give a student a chance to see what the real world of work is like. You might spark something in someone and you might just find your next recruit!
