An Alternative Education for GCSE Students The Best Week of Work Experience Ever…
Three mums from South West London who met through a tual background as Business Psychologists and share similar concerns about how to educate their own children have crafted a week of ‘the best work experience ever’, launching this summer.
Believing work experience offers children the best opportunity to learn about the essential skills needed to thrive in any career, Lucy Standing, Sarah Jane Last and Jo Floyd set up An Alternative Education to provide children with insightful and meaningful experience for future success.
An Alternative Education is a Community Interest Company (CIC), a not-for-profit social enterprise where any profit generated will be donated to the Mayor’s Fund for London, which runs similar schemes for children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.
“In a dynamic world where today’s youth may end up in careers and jobs that haven’t been conceived yet, we need to foster skills which allow young people to adapt and thrive. Much of our education system is focused on passing exams, which leaves little time to focus on the critical skills needed in today’s workplace”, says Sarah Jane Last, co-Founder of An Alternative Education.
As psychologists, Standing, Last and Floyd are aware of the mounting evidence to suggest that academic success at school does not necessarily result in success at work, or indeed in life. Designed for 16-19 year olds, the week they are crafting will feature around 10 different experts representing 5 different vocations and job contexts.
Attendees will meet real clients, work on real life scenarios and receive ongoing constructive feedback from career coaches on their key employability skills – such as listening, critical thinking, questioning, collaboration and communication. Furthermore, they’ll work on their LinkedIn profile and personal statement, develop a business idea, build their own website and deliver a Dragons Den style pitch to an expert panel.
The business people coming to work with the students include Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists, TV Producers, Engineers, Management Consultants and Branding/Marketing Experts. The main learning point for the students will be that despite the differing fields of work, the key skills needed to do well are, broadly speaking, fairly similar. A good doctor needs to listen and build relationships just as much as a good accountant.
By identifying the students’ real employability strengths, as well as providing clarity on the skills required to succeed in a particular field, they’ll be in a much stronger position to evaluate what type of career will best suit their individual and natural abilities.
Taking place at Birkbeck University in central London from Monday 25th – Friday 29th June 2018 (9am-5pm), the week’s education costs £795.00 if booked before 31st March or £895.00 thereafter.
For more information on the week and the experts running it, visit:
http://www.alternativeeducationcompany.com/
For more information on An Alternative Education, please contact Lucy Standing on Lucycstanding@gmail.com or call 07979 608274.