In February 2021, we partnered with BEP and Balfour Beatty who hosted 'Dream Placement', a virtual event held for one week during February half-term. Below is a case study written by BEP.
Work experience is an important part of a young person’s career development, giving them an insight into the world of work but also exploring careers they’ve never heard of. BEP has supported a number of placements over the last 5 years as part of our Social Impact Strategy. Our commitment includes taking on Dream Placements every year. These placements, facilitated by the Centre for Leadership Performance (CfLP) are for young people in West Cumbria aged 16-17 years. Participants go through a rigorous selection process to gain a place.
February 2021 saw a very different Dream Placement to other years as due to COVID restrictions, the placements were held virtually. Ellie and Marlee joined BEP for a week of virtual meetings with a range of staff from our Project Directors to engineers, to support staff and everyone in between! Andrew Sharman suggested a golden thread of Kuka robots to run through the week and the girls gave a slide presentation to a number of BEP and JV staff on their last day about what they had learnt. Both young women were unsure about their career choices and were fairly shy.
However both said they thoroughly enjoyed the week stating “This placement has helped me improve many skills such as confidence, communicating, questioning, presenting, researching, teamwork, leadership, and many more by putting me out of my comfort zone”. and “I learned a lot about myself during this presentation
such as that I do have the confidence inside me to do it and that being nervous is
completely normal.” Ella and Marlee also gained their Bronze Industrial Cadets Award which is a great achievement during lockdown.
The students successfully gained their Bronze Award Industrial Cadets certificate, which included completing a handbook and giving feedback on the week. They wrote “I would say that this placement has had a positive impact on my career plans because I began this week not having any idea of what I wanted to do as a career but during this week I have found some job roles that have really interested me."
Our thanks to everyone involved: Andrew Sharman, Bill Holmes, Caroline Waters, Cath Howard, Cathryn Walley, Derek Orr, Ed Scrimshire, Emily Yeeles, Geoff Blacklock, Gillian Kelshaw, Glynn Oxley, Iliana Adamopoulou, Jeffrey Gaines, Joanne Fox, Justin Gillies, Mandy Bunting, Natalie Melia, Nicola Gol, Sean Moran, Shaun Lees, Sophie Wilson, Tammy
Nolan, Terry Meighan, Tracy Johnson, CfLP and Poppy Robinson of EDT.