Guru Lectures

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Career Academy Co-ordinator and Business teacher at The Sixth Form College, Solihull

Part of our new Career Academy involves what is termed “guru lectures”. This is when business leaders come into College to talk to our Career Academy students about their business and give them useful advice and tips on how to success in business.

Our students had their first Guru Lecture of the year yesterday afternoon. David Stevens (pictured below), who may not have previously thought of himself as a “guru”, came in to give the talk. He is Director of Arup, a global provider of total design, engineering and business solutions. He came in to speak to the students about Arup’s work in the UK and the world wide.

Arup is located here in Solihull, in the Blythe Valley Business Park. They are a worldwide organisation, located in 70 countries, and have been responsible for building some of the most architecturally iconic structures around the world from the Sydney Opera House, to the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing.

Looking a little closer to home, the students were fascinated to hear that Arup also designed the Toyota plant in Derby and St Pancras station in London. They are even redesigning the Selfridges building and developing the HS2 rail link from Birmingham to London.

This talk was just one part of an on-going Career Academy programme. More guru lectures will be taking place in the coming weeks and months and the students are looking forward to one on marketing next week.