Schools returned for the final term (semester) of the year yesterday. I have been working with another oganisation to set up and run a Try a Trade Day. Basically, what this means is that one of our local schools allows us to use their hall. A very large truck arrives, we work hard to unpack it and, in the space of a couple of hours, we have about 14 different stalls set up for the kids to get a taste of different trades eg, hairdressing, beauty, florist, automotive, bricklaying, cooking, painting and plastering, plumbing, horticulture, welding and so on. Most of the stalls are run by volunteer apprentices. Groups of 30 students at a time come through the hall. They are given one hour to get to as many stalls as interest them. From the feedback we received from about 176 students (aged between 14 and 17) that went through today, it was a great success.
Included in the one school group were 10 mentees. I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to have a taste of some different career possibilities and, when they meet up with their mentors, they will have something to talk about and to share, remembering that this GR8 MATES mentoring program is aimed at encouraging the students to transition from school to the workplace, weighing up as many options as they can. Hopefully, the mentors will encourage them and assist them on this journey in the months ahead. They all seemed to enjoy their time going around the stalls, so it will be interesting to hear what comes out of the experience. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the day and the safety and security conditions around running the day, we could not invite the mentors to go around the stalls with their mentees as either observers or participants.
Next week when we meet together the mentees will be completing the Student on-line profiler and I look forward to seeing the results of those. More on that later .....
Included in the one school group were 10 mentees. I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to have a taste of some different career possibilities and, when they meet up with their mentors, they will have something to talk about and to share, remembering that this GR8 MATES mentoring program is aimed at encouraging the students to transition from school to the workplace, weighing up as many options as they can. Hopefully, the mentors will encourage them and assist them on this journey in the months ahead. They all seemed to enjoy their time going around the stalls, so it will be interesting to hear what comes out of the experience. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the day and the safety and security conditions around running the day, we could not invite the mentors to go around the stalls with their mentees as either observers or participants.
Next week when we meet together the mentees will be completing the Student on-line profiler and I look forward to seeing the results of those. More on that later .....
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