A huge thank you to our sponsors Spirax Sarco, Greg Godfrey-Williams – Global Supply Chain, UK Supply Director, and General Manager, Beth Merris – HR Business Partner – UK Supply and the team for supporting this C2S Connection online event, and our school, award winning St Edward’s school, Cheltenham. Together we organised our second C2S Connection event, our online event connecting students and the business community digitally. Building relationships, educating young people on future opportunities, career prospects, and up skilling them on the digital skills they will require in the digital world we now live in.
We had over 70 students from year 11 & 12 from St Edwards school take part and 15 different businesses, from many different sectors. Using our digital platform, we provided the opportunity for businesses to meet students and chat to different groups using our immersive, engaging, interactive, digital platform. Students were able to easily move around the digital room, with 4 sessions allowing them many opportunties to talk to different businesses, finishing with a speed networking session . All whilst eradicating covid transmission, saving on energy, carbon footprint, valuable resource, time and improved productivity – a win/win for everyone.
Our C2S digital platform allows businesses and students to connect with the click of a link, from anywhere in the UK. All you need to take part is a device, computer, phone. iPad, camera, connectivity to Wi-Fi and a headset – we do everything else! We save money, time and the environment, whilst creating the environment for students and young adults to meet businesspeople, apprentices and explore future opportunities.
We surveyed both students and businesses to assess the value of this new initiative to both parties and are working with them to develop a programme that could be rolled out across the UK.
Please see the findings below:
SURVEY RESULTS
We surveyed the students and businesses that took part. Read their feedback below. Very insightful and demonstrates the importance of these events as over 90% of the students that took part found the event very useful and improved their knowledge about career opportunities. Interestingly it also demostrated the work that needs to be done to re-build student confidence after lockdown and COVID. It is no revalation that students suffered hugely during this time but we must not forget it will take time to re-build their confidence and communication skills. C2S is committed to this and will be rolling out our C2S Connections initiative across the county and beyond.
These survey results clearly demonstrate the gap between where year 11 & 12 students are, and where businesses need them to be. We are very grateful to St Edwards School for working with us on this event and working with their students in innovative ways to bridge this gap and support their students in developing these skills and making valuable connections for their students in the business community going forward.
STUDENTS SUMMARY
We asked the students 16 questions, from if they found the event useful, to what they would expect from a future employer and how they viewed the opportunities in Gloucestershire. Really insightful feedback from the survey results that demonstrates this was a resounding success for students. Also, the importance of inspiring younger students to highlight future opportunities and start to help them develop their thoughts on future career opportunities and their options going forward – all motivational and inspiring for this age group as they move into sixth form and the time when they can really develop their skills and be excited about their future.
67 out of 70 students completed the survey and over 90% said the event was useful to them.
Below are some of the examples of what they found useful and what they learnt, all their words and not ours!
- There are industries that don’t need specific qualifications
- very informative
- learning what to say in an interview
- I learned that I could submit scripts of my own to orginisations
- I learnt about what I need for law
- I have found a few companies I’m interested in
- I have more ideas about future careers
- learning what these companies do
- talk to people in different industries
- gained extra information about a variety of businesses
- What qualifications businesses look for
- fun
- Information we received
- I learnt about different businesses opportunities in Cheltenham
- It has helped me narrow down what I want to do in the future
- how to achieve goals
- Very inspiring
- It gave me a greater understanding of what I want to do as a career.
- I enjoyed it
- found out what made a good CV
- gaining knowledge
- learnt about new ways to get employed
BUSINESS SUMMARY
Interestingly the businesses that took part struggled to connect with the students online as most students preferred not to use their camera or mic but communicate in the chat. This is a reflection on the way that our young people communicate today, using social, snap chat and insta etc. and not through face 2 face or in-person conversations. This highlights the need for more support, education and training in these areas for our young people, and we need educational organisations like St Edwards School that are forward thinking and recognise these post-covid issues and implement a plan and strategy to support our young people in these areas.
Businesses also possibly need to reflect on the way they engage with young people, as the student survey clearly shows given the opportunity and the right environment we can inspire and motivate our next generation. Plenty of food for thought!
We asked the businesses 18 questions in our survey and below is some of the feedback from the businesses and business people involved:
- Engagement with local education
- It is valuable to the firm and to junior team members to share their experiences with others
as part of a process of “giving back”. Activities like this contribute to the firm’s ESG efforts
which is also important to us. - Great to have the opportunity to spread the word about The Nelson Trust and working &
volunteering for charities - Not only for sponsoring but by also taking an active part in my view was a success. These
events will and really do make a huge difference connecting our business to the new
potential talent and the wider world. - Long term value for raising awareness of financial planning and investment management as
career options as well as encouraging students to think and talk about their finances (in
personal lives, not with us!) - Yes, you gather a good understanding of what students are interested in, what and where
they would like to work. - I got some good and interested questions from some of the students, who wanted to know
about career paths into my topic of engineering. I was able to provide them with the
differences between Uni and Apprentices, which I hope encourages them - Students were rather disengaged throughout. Especially when compared to face to face
events. Difficult to engage with cameras and mics off, only questions came through the
chat function. Resulted more in presentation rather than discussion - It helps the business to get recognition to a younger audience as spirax isnt a well know
company even around Cheltenham.
C2S CONNECTIONS BUSINESS FULL SURVEY RESULTS –
C2S Connections Business Responses 29th Septe 2022
C2S CONNECTIONS STUDENT FULL SURVEY RESULTS –
C2S Connections Student Survey 29th Sept 2022
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET INVOLVED IN THE NEXT C2S CONNECTIONS ONLINE PLEASE GET IN TOUCH:
Email: angela.edwards@circle2success.co.uk
Mob: 0777 5915959
Huge thank you to all the organisations that took part, providing a diverse group of businesses for students to explore, from manufacturing and engineering to cyber, law, sport, and e-commerce.
THIS IS WHAT SPONSORS SPIRAX SARCO HAD TO SAY:
