CAREER ACADEMY GRADUATION!!!

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Career Academy Manager

All that hard work has paid off! Our Year 13 Business Career Academy students have graduated from the Career Academies UK programme! Congratulations to them all!

I joined the students at London’s Institute of Education last week, accompanied by the Principal Paul Ashdown. We were there, with other Career Academy students from across the country to formally recognise the last 18 months of business experiences.

This is a national programme, run by Career Academies UK and it aims to raise the aspirations of 16 to 19-year-olds, boosting their employability skills by giving them real life experiences in business. In total, over 750 young people, drawn from 81 schools and colleges across the UK, will have graduated from the programme this year.

This has been The Sixth Form College, Solihull’s first cohort of Business Career Academy students and they have benefitted from over 15 guru lectures, 15 visits to a variety of businesses and 10 internships during their time in the programme. The 6-week paid internships were at Coventry Building Society, the Village Hotel, Grant Thornton Chartered Accountants, accountancy firm BDO, Chiltern Railways and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. The students have also each had a business mentor.

Their involvement in the Career Academy began in 2009 at 'A Capital Experience' in London. Guest speaker at that event was Action Jackson and he was again in London last week to offer his congratulations as the students graduated. It was good to see him again!

Director General of the Institute of Directors, Miles Templeman, was also there and he offered words of encouragement to all the students. He spoke about how graduates of the Career Academy are now able to significantly raise the UK’s skills level. He also spoke about the internships undertaken by students and said it distinguished them from other young people.

BBC journalist and presenter Evan Davies also congratulated the students on their achievements. He drew from his experiences of presenting “Dragon’s Den” and new BBC series “Business Nightmares” and offered the graduates four tips for the future; not to be afraid to make mistakes, to be able to admit and learn from these mistakes, to be humble and finally, to take the pride from when life is going really well and to hold this for when times are tough.

College Principal Paul Ashdown stood to applaud as each of our graduating students, as they picked up their graduation certificated and expressed his pleasure in their progress over the last two years.

He, like me, is very proud of the students’ achievements. I’ve seen how much they have developed over the last two years. In particular, their confidence has grown and this will benefit them hugely in the extremely competitive world of business. They have had so many wonderful business-related experiences, not least their six-week internships, which taught them so much and gave them real world experience. I wish them all the best for the future.

DUKE OF EDINBURGH STUDENTS BRAVE STORMY NORTH YORK MOORS

Posting by Grigor Wallace, Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinator

Some of the College’s more intrepid students donned their backpacks and hiking boots over the Easter break, as they undertook an expedition to the North York Moors in preparation for their assessed Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

 

A group of twelve students were unfortunate with the timing of their expedition, as the weather took a turn for the worse, drenching them the first night, and that was before the walking even started! Unfortunately the weather worsened further on day one, but the lessons learnt on looking after equipment during difficult conditions were invaluable.

The weather did ease up slightly for the remainder of the trip however consistent heavy showers hampered progress. Understandably the morale of the students did fluctuate over the four days but lessons were learnt about how to react to difficult situations and how to maintain group morale. The wild camps were well received, and cooking, a major part of any expedition, was carried out safely following a balanced diet. Packs lightened considerably over the trip, which was a welcome relief to all!

This was a great experience for the students, because it provided very good preparation for their final expedition in the Cheviots in August. For that expedition, they will be assessed on navigation, camp craft, group organisation and leadership and of course the physical toil that comes with completing approx 16km per day in open and wild country with a large rucksack.

 

The behaviour of all the students who took part was excellent and their navigation was generally good in difficult conditions. Some of the students struggled a little physically and were victims of blisters, and weak ankles, but even that is a good learning experience and prepares them well for future trips.

 

Thanks go to the staff: Dave Lewis, Jenny Hall, Louis Hume, and Suzanne Madeley. Their help was invaluable and without it trips of this kind would not be possible.

There are lots of photos from the expedition on the College Facebook page.

STICKLEBRICK CHALLENGE AT HMRC

Posting by Ruth Sharp, Business Career Academy Co-ordinator

The Business Career Academy students went to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) at Birmingham Fort a talk and tour last week.

Whilst there, there they took part in a role-playing activity designed to simulate the production and retail of a product, thus teaching them about the process involved in a manufacturing business. The exercise took an hour, during which they were required to make a ‘product’ out of stickle bricks.

The students each had individual roles to act out in the scenario. They had to work together to make the products and then deliver them to the customer. Roles included quality inspector, customer liaison, store manager, materials handler and production workers. As the activity progressed, they were introduced to various lean production concepts and learned how HMRC uses these concepts in the service industry.

The students really enjoyed the visit; members of the public are not normally allowed to visit the site they even having to sign the Official Secrets Act!

The visit ended with a tour of the general office, where students could see the team whiteboards recording activities they had just learned about.

Huge thanks go to HMRC for hosting us.

NEXT STOP CHILTERN RAILWAYS

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Career Academy Manager and Business teacher

The Business Career Academy students have been out and about again, getting first hand knowledge of local business and this week they learnt about the transport industry, and specifically the railways.

The Year 13 students went to visit Moor Street station in Birmingham City Centre. The station is owned by Chiltern Railways and the visit enabled the students to see how the station and the company operates.

Malcolm Holmes, the station manager, welcomed the students and went through the history of Chiltern Railways, who are owned by a German company called Deutsche Bahn.

Chiltern Railways have spent a lot of money in investing in their trains and have recently begun their new service from Birmingham to London, which takes just  90 minutes (down from the 2 hours it took previously). The students heard about how Chiltern Railways came about with the changes.

The talk from Malcolm Holmes also explained how competitive the rail market is, with a total of 13 different train franchisees in the UK. Chiltern Railways are currently re-investing in Solihull station, as a massive 1.5 million passengers pass through this station and Chiltern Railways believe that there is a potential for this number to increase if there were more parking spaces. The new car park is currently being developed and will do so over the next few months.

The students were provided refreshments in tradition train fashion on one of the company’s trolleys, which was full to the brim with snacks they would find on their trains.

The students heard about how a career in the train industry is rewarding and challenging and how quickly it changes. Chiltern have just launch free wifi on their journeys from Birmingham to London to help launch their new faster trains.

It was an interesting visit and we thank Malcolm and Chiltern Railways for hosting us.

PARLIAMENTARY FIELDTRIP

Posting by Bev Bishop, Marketing Co-ordinator

Everyone loves a good fieldtrip! The summer term kicked off with just such a fieldtrip for A level Politics students this week, as a coach of 38 students and 3 staff (myself included) journeyed to London to visit the Palace of Westminster and the Imperial War Museum.

A surprising good journey saw us arrive in London early. We braved the rain and walked down to Downing Street to catch a glimpse of the street that is home to the Prime Minister. A glimpse is all we did get, because security is tight at this famous address these days, with high gates and police officers guarding the entrance.

The main focus of the trip was another place where you will commonly see the Prime Minster; the Houses of Parliament. Again, security was tight. After going through airport-style security checks we each had our photo taken for a pass we had to wear round our necks for the duration of our visit.

We congregated in Westminster Hall, which is a big stone room, which dates back to 1099!! Monarchs traditionally lie in state in this massive hall when they die, prior to burial. This is an honour occasionally extended to Prime Ministers, as was the case with Winston Churchill. The Hall has also been used for centuries for coronation banquets and trials, including that of Guy Fawkes and King Charles I.

We were met by our guide Cliff in Westminster Hall and our official tour began. We went into the House of Lords and the House of Commons, recognisable from their frequent appearances of television. Our guide explained the rituals and traditions of both houses, including the role the monarchy plays in opening parliament; something that will happen shortly. The history and the architecture was also explained to us and we admired the many paintings, tapestries and statues that adorn this famous building.

The visit was fascinating and seeing it first hand helped bring Parliament to life for the students, for whom this forms part of their A level Politics and Government course.

After lunch, we walked across the river and south to the Imperial War Museum. This is one of London’s many fabulous museums, which offers fantastic exhibits entirely free of charge. We had two hours to take in as much of the museum as we could. Truthfully, two hours is not enough, but we saw what we could.

From a lobby full of tanks, guns and aeroplanes from past conflicts, the museum then expands to exhibits on the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Faulklands War, the Gulf War and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, plus much more. The World War One exhibit even includes a mock-up of a trench that you can walk through, complete with unpleasant but realistic smells piped in.

The highlight of the museum – if you can call it that – is definitely the Holocaust exhibit. This is an immensely hard-hitting and moving exhibit, telling the tale of the persecution of Jews and many other groups by Nazi Germany during World War Two. It includes a model of Auschwitz and many artefacts rescued from this concentration camp, including hundreds of shoes from people who were killed in the gas chambers. There are video screens dotted throughout the exhibit, showing actual footage from the time and survivors talking of their experiences. Many of the videos are very difficult to watch, but act as a fitting tribute to a terrible chapter in history that it is important we do not forget.

This particular exhibit was so fascinating to one student that he missed the scheduled time to meet and a search party had to be sent in to retrieve him! He returned to cheers from the students at the end of an absorbing day.

JOHN LEWIS VISIT FOR CAREER ACADEMY

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher and Career Academy Manager
Our Year 13 Business Career Academy students visited the John Lewis National Returns Centre this week. The students undertook the visit to see how one of the leading UK's retailers operates the returns aspect of its business.

The students were given a short history of John Lewis, including learning about the firm’s unique style of partnership of all employees, which came about from the son of the original John Lewis called John Sedan Lewis. He became known (and preferred to be called) Sedan Lewis to disassociate himself from his father. The students were fascinated to hear of his management style, for he was reputed to have a temper and was very easily angered!

The students also learnt about the development of a huge new store opening above Birmingham New Street Station and how John Lewis has repositioned themselves in the market and expanded their Waitrose supermarket stores.

The students were given a guided tour round the depot to see what happens when products are returned to the John Lewis, once they are deemed faulty or simply returned when bought online.

The students were also searched as they left the premises by a device that chooses people at random for security checks! This practice is due to the high value of goods that come through John Lewis on a day to day basis

It was a fascinating visit and the students enjoyed it. Thanks go to the staff at John Lewis for giving up their time to host us. Retail is a huge business sector, so it’s really valuable for the students to get a taste of what goes on behind the scenes.

Away from the Business Career Academy, the students’ A level counterparts took part in a sticklebrick activity this week, in which they learnt about non-financial methods of motivation. The task involved job rotation, in which students were divided into groups and given tasks to complete, then swapped over and repeated each others tasks. The students were then set a larger group task to design towers with sticklebricks. This involved teamwork, which the students all preferred, as it meant that they could develop their own ideas, which is often used in business as a way of developing teams.

STUDENTS PITCH BUSINESS PLANS TO LLOYDS TSB

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher

All last week, Year 13 students on the BTEC Extended Diploma in Business course were doing their business plan presentations.

Standing up and having to make a presentation is daunting at the best of times, but this year three representatives from Lloyds TSB were part of the panels to give students a bank managers opinion of their presentation. Richard Hall, Sharon Warren & Dawn Gilbert from Lloyds TSB are providing their expert financial help on what would happen if our students pitched their ideas to banks for finance.

Each presentation has been different; some even had sample smoothies for their Shakes 2Go business, others had sample menus for their Burger Express business. Each presentation was packed full of interesting ideas.

Other ventures pitched to the panel included plans for a bar, a restaurant, a takeaway, a mobile drink and snacks vendor and a bridal magazine. The idea for the bar was an establishment called The Hang ‘O’ Bar and this presentation included visuals of the uniforms that bar staff would wear. The restaurant business plan was entitled Around in 4 and was for a buffet-style restaurant selling Italian, Chinese, British & Indian cuisine.

Jai Chee kept up the food theme – this business plan was for a Chinese Takeaway, while the final food-related presentation concerned Hot Stop, a mobile hot drinks & snack service provider.

Dugan was the only business plan idea that was not related to catering of some sort and this was the pitch for a bridal magazine aimed at East & West brides.

This project really helped the students to be creative, which is essential for a successful business, but it also showed them all the different things they need to think about when setting up a business. Getting funding to launch a business often means going out and pitching your idea to lenders just as the students did and they learned how important it is to demonstrate that your business plan represents a good investment.

Well done to all the students who took part. There are some photos below and more on the College's Facebook page.