As well as regular mentoring,
ReachOut also provides young people across London and Manchester with the
opportunity to take part in various workshops with some of our fantastic
corporate supporters. These sessions
provide young people with valuable experience in the workplace and a half day
workshop can be truly inspiring to those thinking about which career path to
take!
Earlier this month, a group of
mixed Year 10 students from Bishop Challoner and Heartlands High School made
their way to Macquarie Bank to learn more
about what a typical day there looks like. Their first challenge was to find the offices without
using their phones for assistance – an impossible task judging by the looks on
some of their faces! The students were
encouraged to work as a team and pluck up the confidence to ask passers-by for
directions (accompanied
by ReachOut staff of course!). With
their first challenge complete, they arrived at Macquarie right on time and
were quickly shown to the Board Room where they met the Macquarie volunteers.
The World of Work workshop is
designed to give young people a better understanding of the roles
available to them and inspiration for future careers. After a couple of icebreaker games Richard King, a long standing ReachOut mentor, gave a
presentation on the different departments within Macquarie, along with examples of some
of the clients and deals they have been involved with. The mention of Manchester United and Adidas
as clients certainly caught the students’ attention! After this there was a “working lunch” where the students were encouraged to engage with the volunteers about their
experience working for Macquarie and ask questions about their working life.
After lunch the students broke
into smaller groups and were treated to a tour of the Macquarie offices, which
are very impressive! After walking
around the trading floor the girls noted out loud the high ratio of men to
women working on the floor – the Macquarie staff were quick to assure them that
they would love to have more women working in trading but they needed more
women to apply. This sparked a conversation
about how trading has traditionally been male dominated and the girls were very
interested to learn that this was a career option for them!
The students spent the rest of
the afternoon playing the Trading Game – an interactive activity in which
students and volunteers work in groups to buy and sell stock at the best prices
– with the winning team being the one that has made the biggest profit!
Our workshops are a fantastic
opportunity for both the students and volunteers to develop their skills by
putting themselves out of their comfort zone and communicating effectively with
a greater range of people.
A special thank you goes out to
all the volunteers from Macquarie who gave up their time to work with our young
people!
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