Digital work experience ensure engagement with future civil engineers

Virtual work experience is being delivered by Morgan Sindall to 30 students from 16 schools across the East of England through what has been described as a trailblazing programme.

Speakers for Schools said that the Covid-19 pandemic has put education programmes at a standstill and that its VWEX virtual work experience programme was providing the tools to ensure student still gain this vital insight.

Using Google Classroom as the delivery platform, Speakers for Schools work collaboratively with employers to develop bespoke virtual programmes that are designed at building hugely important early talent pipelines.

Morgan Sindall’s programme saw students log in to Google Classroom and take part in a number of digital challenges and tasks supported by expert volunteers from the built environment, before presenting a final project to an expert panel including the firm’s senior team. The programme calls on a number of skills, including maths, digital design, science, English and art, and will also require students to work collaboratively with their colleagues.

Morgan Sindall community investment advisor in the East of England Helen Clements said: “Our collaboration with Speakers for Schools was brilliant and helped us to deliver an outstanding week of virtual work experience for over 30 students. The platform was very easy to use and made managing and delivering the whole week a real success, with every one of the students who took part saying they would recommend their experience to others. I would highly recommend Speakers for Schools to deliver VWEX.”

30 students joined Morgan Sindall's virtual work experience programme

According to Morgan Sindall, early engagement with young people is vital for talent pipeline building with 70% of its apprenticeship, trainee and graduate intake come through pre-engagement activity.

Speakers for Schools has made the VWEX platform available for free for the 2020 school year to allow employers to reach out to as many young people as possible. Each VWEX programme will be designed for specific age and skills groups and can be developed as either a full week programme or shorter one day taster sessions.

Speakers for Schools founder and ITV political editor Robert Peston added: “In this time of national emergency, we must not forget that our young people must prepare for the challenging world that awaits them. What we are living through will change everything, so more than ever school students would benefit from the wisdom of Speakers for Schools’ inspirational speakers and from experiencing real places of work. Which is why Speakers for Schools is creating a new digital service, to deliver brilliant talks and fulfilling work experience to students’ smartphones and laptops. For all of us, life and work must go on, even if in a socially distanced way.”

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