The Apprentice

Project Summary

Huxley Associates, in partnership with Time & Talents for Westminster and Connexions, organised an opportunity for young people come into the workplace and learn about interviewing for jobs. At the end of the day two young people were selected to come back for a week of work experience at Huxley Associates. Four young people participated.

Project Details

Apprentice themed posters and invitations were created to attract NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) young people to the opportunity at Huxley Associates. Connexions was introduced as a pilot partner and project support meetings were held to plan the day and to provide tailored support to both sides. Participants in the project were chosen through a process of selection.
The employability day included

Morning workshop for a group of Connexions staff
Afternoon workshop for four young people:

Introductions from a Executive Manager and several Huxley employees
Presentation on: the basics of selling yourself, CVs, and interview techniques
Group session to brainstorm interview answers together
Solo interview practice in breakout rooms
Formal mock interviews with senior managers
Constructive feedback session, certificates given out to all, and two young people selected for work experience

Work experience
Two young people spent a week at Huxley Associates gaining tangible experience for their CVs. At the start of their placement they had induction meetings with several staff from different teams to learn about the company. They then had the chance to work with a few of those teams and undertook a variety of tasks. On most days they were taken out to lunch by colleagues. During the week the young people were given intensive support and encouragement to call client companies to put themselves forward for interviews. On the last day of their placements both young people secured real job interviews.

° Raised morale and increased motivation at work
° Knowing that a difference can be and has been made in the community
° Enhanced profile, contribution to Huxley/SThree reputation, CSR goals and aims.
° A valuable tool-kit for the repeat of this type of project

° Participants gained an intimate introduction to the workplace environment
° Strong emphasis on transferable skills throughout tasks and workshops
° Tangible experience of workshops and work experience enhanced CVs, confidence levels and interview presentation skills

"I didn’t take it serious, but when I came here and put my heart into it, I realised all these opportunities open to me and what I can get”

Young person

Get involved

Get in touch with us; we can help you organise a similar project with a local Westminster school

A realistic interview process proved thought provoking and motivating

Project Objectives

Employer Partner

Staff to use their work place environment as a way of supporting young people within the community
Build on mentoring and communication skills
Enhance SThee / Huxley Associates reputation and work towards CSR goals

Community

Young people to have opportunity to learn about the work environment, improve their CV's and the possibility of one weeks' work experience
Improving communication skills, confidence and experience in the work place

The experience was enhanced for young participants by being in a corporate environment

Quotes

Young people: "I didn’t take it serious, but when I came here and put my heart into it, I realised all these opportunities open to me and what I can get”. “They taught me how to prepare, tips, and then the chance to practice how it all works."
Employees: "I learnt that we can make a difference to people who we would normally not communicate with". "There was a lot of work and planning required to make the day successful, having to co-ordinate a project like this will certainly benefit me in the future."
Connexions team leader: “These young people will never be the same again because of this experience.” (Author: )

Articles in this group

DECC Climate Change Workshop for people with Learning Disabilities
DECC staff run Climate Change Workshop for people with Learning Disabilities to improve confidence in engaging with new client groups whilst hugely benefiting the charity with project evaluation (Author: )

Football match with migrant mentees
Twelve Department for Transport (DfT) staff volunteered to participate in the tournament, and fundraised refreshment and travel costs for the mentees (Author: )

1-2-1 mock-interviews for 180 sixth form students
Paddington Academy wanted to hold a mock interview day for their one hundred and eighty Sixth Form students in order to improve confidence. Many will be going to work after leaving school. The school needed professional (Author: )

Role-play and 1-2-1 support at interactive employability workshop
Four staff from the Department for Transport (DfT) volunteered to develop a half day interactive employability workshop for ELATT's Refugee Women’s Project (Author: )

Assessing a local mentoring and befriending scheme for people with learning disabilities
Seven members of the private secretarial team for Minister of Health Anna Soubry helped a Westminster charity in assessing their learning disabilities mentoring and befriending programme (Author: )

DH staff run 'Raising Aspirations + Goal Setting' workshop for teenagers
Department of Health staff ran a ‘Raising Aspirations and Goal Setting’ workshop for 120 Year 12 students; providing insight into life at the DH, Q+A sessions and policy workshops (Author: )

Case Studies
Read more about the work of the Time and Talents partners and some of our innovative volunteering projects. (Author: )

British Land Community Day
Some 163 members of British Land’s Head Office team took part in the company’s first Community Day (Author: )

Business customer and strategy team volunteer at St Augustine’s High School
The Business Customer and Strategy senior leadership team (SCS) at HMRC spent the day volunteering their time in a local Westminster Secondary School to deliver a tax workshop to sixth form students (Author: )

Press and Promotion Workshop
“Making Headlines” workshop delivered by Reputation Inc. hosted at Conservative party headquarters and The Guardian. (Author: )

Team Variety Volunteering @ DH
Giles Wilmore quality division organised an away day called the Christmas challenge 2011.Projects include: christmas hampers and social activities for the ederly, employability and healthy sessions for young people. (Author: )

Mock interiews with homeless people@ DH
Partnership between the homeless charity and the DH. The DH team provides support and advises to homeless unemployed and those who have not work for a long time. Great opportunity to practise interviews and optimize chances to get a work. (Author: )

Volunteers encouragers @ DH
Initiative of DH volunteer staff forms a rota to help isolated and vulnerable people in art, craft and social activities. These activities help both team to socialize together and create strong synergies. More... (Author: )

Rememberance Day at DH
Children from local schools meet with armed force, event organised by the Department of Health. It was a great opportunity for students to understand the role of the British Defence Force and also a chance to express themselves on the Rememberance Day. (Author: )

Grow your own food in school
Volunteers supported teams of students to create a plan of what to grow in their new plastic bottle greenhouse, taking into account, seasons, growing conditions etc. (Author: )

Pitching simulation @ Microsoft
Volunteers from Microsoft - Advertising team welcomed sixth form students from a local Academy to their offices and facilitated the students to create their own pitch. (Author: )

Plastic bottle greenhouse @ local primary school
Department of Health volunteers helped get the whole school involved in collecting bottles and, together with 6-11 yr olds, built a Plastic Bottle Greenhouse during the school's Sustainability Week (Author: )

BlueBay volunteers provide I.T Training
An team from BlueBay volunteered their time to provide training in Office 2007 to a charity staff who had recently had it installed at their offices (Author: )

A-Level law students visit to Ministry of Justice
An interactive day filled with presentations, workshops and discussions with senior level policy makers and law-practitioners (Author: )

Cross-government task force support homeless charity with their client survey
Volunteers from the Home Office and HMRC support charity with client survey, from design, to interviews, to analysis of findings and report writing (Author: )

Work placement for person with mild learning disabilities
Two week work experience placement with the Department of Health for someone with mild learning disabilities (Author: )

Peer mentoring cross-sector relationship
Director of Strategy for Office for Disability issues (ODI) and the CEO of an advocacy charity were matched as part of an ongoing partnership between the two organisations. (Author: )

Six month secondment placement
Usha was seconded from Ministry of Justice to a small civil society organisation where she honed skills and confidence to start up her own company (Author: )

Financial capability project @ local primary school
Barclays volunteers ran the Barclays Money Skills programme supporting children to think about what they can do with money through fun, practical and engaging activities (Author: )

Policy team engage with day centre for older people
Staff from the Commission on Funding of Care and Support spent the day at a Day Centre for older people (Author: )

Construction Site visit by Land Securities
Volunteers from Land Securities showed students interested in construction and engineering around the building site of the new BBC headquarters (Author: )

Employability outreach for young people
Soft skills support for young people on social housing estate. Programme included: CV, Interview, professional skills and etiquette and enterprise. (Author: )

Employability Mentoring Project
Mentoring Project delivered by DfT in Partnership with South Westminster Renewal Partnership (Author: )

Anti-Bullying DVD, Launch Event
Office for Disability Issues partnered up with a local charity supporting adults with learning disabilities to help launch an anti-bullying DVD (Author: )

Three year sustainable partnership
Three year partnership involving a number of projects including: garden renovations; trips for children and families; pro bono space planning; and funding. (Author: )

Garden make-over
Aegis staff volunteered to revamp and do up the gardens of a Community Day Centre so that clients and staff would enjoy the gardens free from weeds, overgrown hedges and rubbish. (Author: )

Welcome to My School
Volunteers work with primary school children to create a welcome book which is then translated into several languages to help for when new children and parents join the school (Author: )

Welcome to My Community
Volunteers from DfE engaged with the parents from a Westminster Primary School through open consultation and discussion to encourage them to become more of a part of the school community (Author: )

Employability Workshop
Spencer Stuart (recruitment company) went to Paddington Academy to conduct employability workshops there. (Author: )

Storytelling without books
Storytelling without books at a Westminster Primary school with a group of senior Barclays managers. (Author: )

Christmas Lunch Project
Jonathan from the Home Office spent a day volunteering, read his description here (Author: )