On Friday 6th July, over 180 Summer Interns from Deutsche Bank volunteered as mentors at Royal Docks Academy. Volunteers were paired with one student, from either Year 9 or Year 10, and they worked together for the full day on a series of impactful employability activities. By the end of the day each student had been individually mentored through drafting their first CV, a personality quiz, and a mock interview.
Whilst secondary schools work hard to provide as many opportunities as possible for their students to learn about careers, it is very rare that students receive well-considered and personalised guidance about their futures.
We strongly feel that students should have a strong understanding of themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, their interests, and their skills, in order to be able to make informed decisions about their futures. With no specific curriculum time dedicated to this, we seek to incorporate this into our work where possible.
Beyond a greater self-awareness, students should benefit from guidance on subject choices, education pathways, and career exploration. Similarly, there is limited time to explore these topics in details as part of the school curriculum. Where there are opportunities to explore these themes, it is rarely done so on a one-to-one, personalised basis, which is what each individual student deserves.
In collaboration with Deutsche Bank, we were able to put together this unique and impactful event. All year 10 students at Royal Docks Academy, along with approximately 40 year 9 students, were able to benefit from a full day of one-to-one mentoring.
Working closely with the school’s Director of Careers and Head of Year 10, 15billionebp created bespoke resources for the students and volunteers to work through together. Activities included: self-awareness, revision advice, learning the value of money, CV workshop, professional social media, elevator speech, interview tips, and a mock interview.
By working closely for the full school day, the volunteers were really able to explore the students’ individual aspirations and ideas. Furthermore, these young volunteers, on Deutsche Bank’s Summer Intern Programme, were able to easily connect with the students and recall their own experiences from not so long ago.
‘I would like to thank you for what was hands down, the most incredible careers day I have ever seen in my life. The students found the event incredibly beneficial. The feedback we received from the year 10 students was outstanding. We had students approach us with comments such as “Sir, I’ve got my confidence back” and “that was possibly the best day of my entire school life. The leadership and teaching staff in our school were also very impressed and just being able to witness students receiving these types of opportunities bought a smile upon everyone’s faces. Parents also expressed their gratitude when we met them a week later at our parents and students careers fair.’
Director of Careers, Royal Docks AcademyThe size of this event meant that, in collaboration with Deutsche Bank and Royal Docks Academy, we were able to facilitate far-reaching, yet personalised event for some 180 pupils. Through our annual mentoring programmes, we have already seen the benefit of one-to-one guidance, and the opportunity to replicate this on a much larger scale was truly unique.
