Following on from last weeks post: Working with the Working Knowledge, I thought I would feedback to you my experiences from my day at the Working Knowledge Plunge event I attended at Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College in Birmingham last Thursday.

This was the first time that I attended such an event with Working Knowledge so I really did not know what to expect.  I knew the premise of the day, in that is was an event aimed at helping college youngsters get an understanding of the business world, and for many this was their first real contact with the business world.

All of the "experts", of which I was one, arrived at 8.30am, there were around 20 of us and 160 students (30+ groups), we were briefed on the day and then went to meet the students.

Task 1: we went to a large hall in which all the students were located.  They then had to approach us and state their business idea, we were then encouraged to be favourable at this early stage and give them some play money, as though we wanted to invest.

Task 2: all the experts sat with 3 student teams.  We were then asked several questions by those teams, about us, our business, our specialisations.

Task 3: We were then divided into expert teams (I was 1 of 3 experts for our group).  Within our small "elite teams" were each designated an expert advice area, from Money, Product and Sales, etc.  I was designated to be a money expert.  So I was asked questions about product cost and other money related questions (of quite a basic nature).  We had 5 teams that we would advise, eventually choosing one team winner at the end of the day.

Task 4: We then had to listen to the pitches, in a dragon's den style format.  The teams had 4 minutes to pitch the concept/ product/ service, we then fired 4 minutes of questions back to the group.

Task 5: We then marked the presentations and awarded a prize to the best group and best individual performance.

The day was very productive for the students involved, most of whom took it seriously, and there were a few bright prospects on show.  Working Knowledge certainly were organised and this was a well run event with some great people involved.

All the experts seemed to agree that it was rewarding to help these youngsters and were encouraged by their creativity and enthusiasm.  There is certainly talent out there, regardless of what you read in the media.

Personally, I feel that there is more opportunity here than wither Working Knowledge or the college are currently taking advantage of.  From a recruitment perspective, I saw a few people out of the 25 students that I worked with that we would be happy to interview for jobs in the future when they start to look for a career. Neither Working Knowledge, nor the college, seems to have a platform to promote job opportunities within the expert’s companies. I think that this would be a great value add to offer these students, given the shortage of good jobs for this age range.

So there you have it. That was my day with Working Knowledge at Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College.  I now move onto looking at all the recruitment methods that our business employs to attract the best talent.  One of the talent generation schemes that we will be looking to implement later this year is an Apprentice Scheme, which will be specifically targeting the types of  people I met at this event.

As a business with an office in South East Birmingham (Solihull to be exact), we are always looking to employ great new talent to join our Birmingham office.  Please take a moment to visit our website, read our success stories, or our team testimonials and see why people choose to work as part of our team.  If you'd like to work for us contact Karen on 01628-477744  today for a chat about joining us.