School: Parkstone Grammar School
Young Chamber sponsor: Coles Miller Solicitors LLP
Organisation: Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole
When Parkstone Grammar School asked Young Chamber to help place five Year 10 students interested in a specific area for work experience, the call to help was immediately answered by Dorset Chamber member and independent local Charity, Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole.
The Issue
Placing all of a school’s Year 10 students for a week’s work placement – in an area they are interested in working in – can be challenging, especially when other schools are also vying for the same places for students during the same period.
Young Chamber member, Parkstone Grammar School, was seeking to place five students interested in studying Law, and while the School’s Young Chamber membership sponsor Coles Miller Solicitors LLP offers work placements, they had already allocated their places to two students at Parkstone Grammar and another student from another school.
The School’s Careers Lead, Julia Wilkinson asked Young Chamber, with its access to Dorset Chamber members as well as other businesses and organisations, to help.
Help from Young Chamber
Young Chamber immediately put out a call for help from a firm or organisation, using the Young Chamber social media channels, as well as including it in the Dorset Chamber e-Newsletter.
The response from Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole came almost immediately, with a very generous offer to take all five students at once.
Emma Lee, Head of Partnerships and Business Development at Citizen Advice Bournemouth & Poole, said: “Being able to provide work experience is important to us as it ensures that the next generation know who Citizens Advice is and the service we provide. The opportunity for work experience is also really important whilst at school as it enable students who are unsure of the direction they want to move in and give them some experience within the work place.”
After the straightforward checks and paperwork, all was set for the work experience students to spend a week with Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole at the start of June 2018.
The Working Week
During the working week, all five students were able to meet and interact with a range of staff and volunteers across the organisation, including advisers, case workers, the Chief Executive Officer and senior management team, as well as members from the Trustee Board.
The students were asked to organise themselves into teams to undertake admin tasks, shadow advisers by listening in to client appointments and having the opportunity to discuss these with advisers and supervisors afterwards.
They were also given the opportunity to visit Coles Miller Solicitors LLP as part of their placement, since Matt Lewis, Partner and Head of Residential Leasehold at the firm was, until recently, a Trustee at Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole having had a long association with the organisation advising its clients on welfare reform and individual rights in his spare time during his years of study.
Matt was joined at Coles Miller’s offices in Bournemouth by two other Partners – Lydia Barnett, Partner and Ruth Elkins, Partner – and Cathryn Harper-Tedstone, a trainee solicitor with the firm, to provide the Parkstone Grammar School students with the opportunity to hear and see legal practice in progress.
It also gave the students insight into the high regard with which the training provided by Citizens Advice is held, as this can reduce a solicitor’s training contract by 6 months, and understand the differences as well as the communication links between Citizens Advice and law firms.
Student Outcomes
All students found the experience very useful; having the opportunity to undertake work experience in an area directly linked to their career interest was invaluable at this stage in their student lives.
They all enjoyed working at the Town Hall office and seeing all the different people ‘in action’ from watching the advisors conduct pre-meeting research to writing up reports. The students found listening to phone advice useful and benefited from the talks given by different people working and volunteering for Citizens Advice. In addition to the work experience, they went to a talk at the Library office regarding university and law.
Some of the students have since expressed an interest in work shadowing at Coles Miller Solicitors LLP in future with a view to studying Law in future.
Julia Wilkinson, Careers Lead at Parkstone Grammar School, said: “We are grateful to Young Chamber for helping us with this very specific request for five students interested in law; to Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole for accommodating the students so well; and to Coles Miller Solicitors LLP both for sponsoring our Young Chamber membership, as well as making time to give additional insight to the students on placement in June.
“While we always strive to find placements which are as relevant as possible for our students, sometimes it is difficult for everyone to receive their first choice. In this case the students were very fortunate and they fully appreciate the opportunity they were given – as do we.”
Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole Feedback
Feedback from Citizens Advice Bournemouth & Poole has been full of praise for the integrity and calibre of the students who made it worthwhile for the organisation too.
Emma Lee continues: “The students were extremely helpful and well behaved and a credit to their school. Each student said they wished they had taken the opportunity to speak to more people within the organisation and pushed themselves out of their comfort zone. In particular, we were really impressed how well they all understood confidentiality in everything we do. At one point, a manager suggested that they may know what the other had listened into and the response was no, they had not discussed any of it since it was all confidential.”
About Young Chamber
Young Chamber is delivered in Dorset by Dorset Chamber and supported by British Chambers. Its dedicated Young Chamber Coordinator helps Young Chamber member schools to bring business experiences into the classroom to prepare students for the world of work, organise industry visits, support schools in finding participating companies for careers days, workshops and mock interviews, helps schools with governor recruitment and, where possible, helps with specific requests such as helping to place the five work experience students in an area which is relevant to their future career choices.
While Young Chamber does not receive any public sector funding, its work compliments the Governments Careers Strategy which both requires and measures schools’ provision of ‘meaningful encounters’ with employers for every student.
A school’s membership of Young Chamber is sponsorship by a business and unlocks the potential for the school to engage with 700+ business members across the Dorset Chamber membership. If you would like to know more about volunteering time in schools, becoming a sponsor or how your school can become a Young Chamber member, contact joan.senior@dcci.co.uk