Last Friday, a few graduates from Lloyd’s teamed up with about 25 volunteers to take part in a day called ‘Getting Paid’—a series of workshops about employment for year 11 students and one of the volunteer opportunities available to employees in the Lloyd’s market through Lloyd’s Community Programme.

The ‘Getting Paid’ day took place at the Cardinal Pole RC School in Hackney and was organised by DevNet—a team at Lloyd’s that’s devoted to social and community events.

When we arrived at the school all the volunteers had a quick briefing from the Hackney Education Business Partnership team, who were in charge of the day’s activities, and then we went to the main hall where all the students had gathered.

Throughout the day, between the workshops, actors performed sketches for the students illustrating the various learning points, such as interviewing techniques.

At 9.15am the first workshop began.

We left the hall and went back to a classroom with about 30 students, who were split into small groups of six to eight, and each group was assigned a volunteer.

We began the first workshop by giving the students the opportunity to ask us questions about our jobs and qualifications. The students seemed a bit shy at this point so we got into our groups and discussed applying for jobs and how to do it.

The students had to think of eight qualities and characteristics that any employer would look for when searching for a candidate. My group came up with some really good ideas like teamworking skills, communication and reliability. I was really pleased with how well the group worked together as a team to come up with these concepts and I think they were really impressed with themselves, too.

After a sketch from the actors we returned to the classroom and held a workshop on how to write a CV.
I think the students found this the most useful session because they were all considering trying to get part time jobs. We gave them examples of a well presented CV and badly presented one. They were quick to spot what could be done better in the badly presented one.

My group also had a long discussion about covering letters and personal statements. I encouraged the students to think about the activities they’re involved in. Then we discussed ways they could use those activities in their CVs to illustrate their commitment and interests.

After that session there was another sketch in which the actors played out an interview scenario.

We went back to the classroom for a short workshop before lunch, after which we had scheduled interview practice—I’d be interviewing each one of the students while the others watched and made notes.

After we’d tucked into our school dinners we went ahead with the interviews. Some of the students were a bit nervous, but all of them had a lot to say.

I was really pleased with how well the students performed. They used many examples of their every day activities to discuss their talents and attributes, and it showed me what they’d learnt from the morning sessions.

It was a really tiring day but I enjoyed it a lot. The students were all very friendly and excited that we were there. I like to think that they all took away something from the advice we offered them.
Thanks go to DevNet and the Education Business Partnership for organising the day. I’d recommend it to anyone.