Year 12 pupils spent a week at the end of the summer term doing work experience with a wide range of companies from different industries and sectors. From financial services, hospitality and retail to technology and engineering, and education and sports-based businesses, the pupils all found suitable and worthwhile placements.
Head of Careers, Mrs Rapple Moore, said: “Work experience is an invaluable part of a young person’s education and one of the most valuable assets a student can put on their university applications, as well as on their CVs. We are pleased to offer Year 12 the opportunity of a week’s work experience at the end of the summer term. Work experience can help clarify to a student what they might, and might not, want to do after leaving school and whilst work experience related to future careers is great, any work experience is enormously valuable, instilling in pupils the discipline of arriving at a workplace on time, interacting with the public, working as a member of a team, carrying out instructions and giving them a taste of life in the ‘real world’.”
It was wonderful to read so much positive feedback from those overseeing the placements. Our Shiplake pupils made positive impressions on everyone they met and demonstrated good work ethics, a willingness to learn and excellent attitudes. Many added that they would love to welcome the pupils back again in the future. Here are just a few of the comments received:
He was very interested in our area of the business and seemed to enjoy the regulatory side of things. He was really eager to know more and very quickly understood the nature of the business and how the customer service teams operate along with the customer journey. He was interested and engaged in the discussions I had with him on Change and Project Management. There were no particular weaknesses that I observed.
Sabine showed excellent maturity and sensitivity when speaking with staff and residents. She was aware of the highly personal nature of our work and people commented how respectful she was. She got involved with many aspects of our programme, asking thoughtful questions and engaging well.
Zac displayed clear knowledge of how financial markets work and this was reflected in his ease of understanding how the insurance market operates. Zac's understanding of economics and market cycles was helpful when explaining the dynamics of insurance and what contributes to the success of the market and the various challenges we face.
Evie asked a lot of questions about marketing, working with individuals in the team, gaining a breadth and understanding across online and offline activity. She showed a keen interest in understanding customer KPIs and how we band our customers on propensity scoring. She is clearly a bright, intelligent, and curious pupil which will stand her well in life. Evie is warm and friendly, so slotted into the team well.
Ben was extremely enthusiastic about all tasks he was asked to do. He was punctual every day and was very keen to spend time in all elements of the business, so that he could see the life journey of a tenancy from the tenant making an offer, through to the management of the tenancy once they had moved in. He was extremely willing to learn and asked lots of questions to fully understand all processes.
Sam was very focused, asked questions to gain further knowledge and overall seemed very interested in how we fit in with the rest of the business. Very engaging and approachable and seemed keen to understand how we work. As above, Sam showed an interest in learning what we do here at Xe, and even had a go and creating his own project plan, asking lots of ‘why’ questions along the way. He seemed genuinely interested in what we talked about, in my case that was project management.
He was very inquisitive and enthusiastic about learning about all elements of processes within our company. He asked lots of questions and wanted to fully understand how all departments worked. His questions were always relevant and interesting, and highlighted his interest in wanting to understand how the day-to-day running's of our company work.
