Richard Kirk (CEO, Workplus), Regan Bingham (HR Officer, Dennison Commercials Ltd) and Gordon Cross (Director, Revolution Productions) detail the benefits of the pilot Work Experience 2024 programme, led by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council alongside Workplus.
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LearningTranscript
00:00 This project came about, like all good things do, through conversations. We had a conversation
00:10 with the council and really coming off the back of Covid, they were keen to help employers
00:15 and schools better connect with each other. We looked at work experience as a really good
00:20 way of connecting our young people with the exciting opportunities that are available
00:25 here in the borough. But it's often very difficult for young people, their parents, their schools
00:30 to know that employers are out there. It's also hard sometimes for employers to make
00:35 the time to make time for work experience. So what we did was we created a coordinated
00:40 programme which was really focused, got employers on board, a really diverse mix from lots of
00:46 different sectors, finance, into engineering, software, and into writing manual rules as
00:52 well. And a really good variety of work experience opportunities for young people. And then the
01:00 young people could apply to those opportunities. So the real benefits have been having five
01:03 schools involved, two from mainstream education and three special schools. So it's incredibly
01:09 diverse in terms of the opportunities and the young people that have gotten involved,
01:14 making work experience much more inclusive for businesses and schools right across the borough.
01:20 Yeah, so this game has been very beneficial for us at Denison's. Obviously it helps pupils
01:26 learn what they like and what they enjoy doing and hopefully benefit them for their future
01:31 careers. And also helps us with future talent, nurturing that next generation of future staff
01:39 for us. So yeah, it's been really beneficial for the company.
01:43 Hi, I'm Gordon Cross from Revolution Productions. We took part in the local work experience
01:51 scheme. We find it very beneficial. We like the professionalism that Anthony W. Burr
01:57 Council and Work Plus offered the scheme. And the two young people that were involved
02:04 were just incredible, really interested in our events industry. And we would definitely
02:12 involved in this scheme of work.