Young people who have 4+ interactions with a variety of employers and businesses throughout their school career are 5x less likely to end up NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).

But what does an interaction look like?  Here are some helpful ideas and hints for teachers to post as an Opportunity on O2i.org or for business volunteers to make an Offer to schools!

1. Speed Networking : several volunteers from business have speed sessions (involving quickfire Q&As)  with 2 students at a time about their career. For a flavour of this type of event, please see a previous session, here.
2. Mock Interviews : one or two volunteers from business sit as a panel of interviewers to ask questions and give constructive, friendly feedback to students about their interview performance.
3. Projects : volunteers from business could propose a small or large project for students to work in teams on, possibly coming in at the beginning of term to propose the project and again at the end of the project to judge the outcomes.
4. Big Questions.  One of our schools had a Big Question day where they wanted to talk about moral dilemmas. One of our volunteers from business discussed how ethics and moral dilemmas impact in the work place. The Big Questions could be legal – ask for a legal expert to come in! The Big Questions could be social – find an environment expert to talk about waste management or a human rights expert to talk about supply chains and students’ food reaches them…the opportunities for this type of interactions are endless and exciting!
5. Writing skills – workshops on copywriting, CV writing, letter-writing…students will need writing skills their entire life. Let’s get them some expert support now!
6. Presentation skills. Volunteers from business don’t need to be presentation experts – they could be a judge for a variety of pitches or dramatic presentations to get students used to presenting confidently to an employer.
7. Finance : maybe a volunteer from business from a financial background could make a fun workshop around How to be a Millionaire? Teaching the students how to handle their personal finances…and (hopefully!) inspiring some fun thinking about that funny little stuff called cashflow…
8. The list goes on. Of course, you could simply ask any kind of expert in any kind of sector to deliver a half hour talk on their career. Think about what your students respond to. Think about what you’d respond to. Then ask for that type of interaction and see what response you get!

Have fun coming up with interactions that your students will be informed and inspired by!