Students at Harrow College have been visited by employees from a number of leading organisations in an initiative aimed at providing the young learners with an insight into working life and the actions they can take now to benefit their future careers.
The event took place over a week (21-25 Nov) with the employees visiting students during class time at both the Harrow on the Hill campus and the Harrow Weald campus. Students listened intently as the guests spoke about their journeys from education to employment.
Companies represented included Sony Mobile, Microsoft, Just Eat, Salesforce, Northwick Park Hospital and others. Many of the speakers gave tips on what the students could do now. Networking was a recurring topic with student being encouraged to grow their contacts and connections from all walks of life using the LinkedIn online social network tool. Others spoke about the importance of developing skills, taking opportunities and building work experience to successfully climb the career ladder.
Alicia Yap, Marketing Professional from Sony Mobile encouraged students to be positive, work hard and smart, be patient, listen a lot, and keep an open mind. Ultimately, her advice to students was to follow their passion and to not be afraid of trying something new.
The event was delivered by Working Knowledge - a social enterprise that exists to open the eyes of business to the young talent available locally. Working Knowledge have many years’ experience of partnering with the Further and Higher Education sectors to support the education of full time learners through employer engagement. This event is just one aspect of the project which Working Knowledge are delivering at Harrow College, with further employer engagement to come in January and April 2017.
Speaking at the end of the week which students described as being ‘inspiring’ and ‘motivating’, Chloe Rendall, Director of Quality, Teaching, Learning & Innovation at Harrow College said:
“The scale of this project event has been incredible and students (and staff) have engaged directly with so many employers who are keen to have an active input into our curriculum across all levels and programmes. It is a fantastic opportunity to bring the curriculum to life, raising the aspirations of our students and enabling them to understand what it is they also need to do to be successful”.
Click here for more on Careers and Employability at Harrow College.