Business related exercises for schoolkids

[Pot Bellied Fool]

There's always a fund of good ideas in here so why should I scratch my own head?

I've been roped in as a visiting business mentor for a group of kids at a local school. I've done a lot of stuff in the past doing talks on STEM careers & I do business mentoring for the Princes Trust which is a longer term thing.

But I'm working with this schoolage group (2 boys, 2 girls - Yr 7 or 8 iirc) who are the forgotten middle. Not high flyers, not 'problem' pupils but ones who tend to get overlooked. It's just an hour every so often so limited as to what can be done but so far we've talked through what jobs they want to do, what qualities they think they may need when working, a cut-down Myers-Briggs type exercise and we've got a workplace visit planned.

I'm back in this week - asked them to bring 'good' and 'bad' job adverts in for us to discuss but looking for more ideas on exercises to do with them to increase their knowledge of business, employability, self-confidence. Anything along those lines.

Anything anyone else has done in the past? What worked well for you?

[louiebaby]

What sort of jobs might they be targeting?

I would have thought it's pretty difficult for kids aged 12-13 to visualise what being an adult is really all about.

Some might argue it's best never to know... Is the best bet not to open their eyes to the possibilities?

If they like the idea of lots of travel, there are sort of three options:

1. Find a job where you have to travel a lot for it. (Airline stewardess, amongst a lot of other options.)
2. Find a job where you get access to very cheap travel for your personal time. (Airline head office job / travel agent etc.)
3. Just do seasonal work. (Ski seasons and club reps, cruise ship.)

Help them get some customer facing experience where they meet people from all walks of life. (Wait staff, shop assistant, anything that shows they can deal with all sorts of people and understand good customer service.)

[Nightmare]

louiebaby said:

What sort of jobs might they be targeting?

I would have thought it's pretty difficult for kids aged 12-13 to visualise what being an adult is really all about.

Some might argue it's best never to know... Is the best bet not to open their eyes to the possibilities?

I think this is a very good point - i think it’s easy to forget how much you didn’t know when that age (if that makes sense). Going through things that are actually jobs would have been very helpful to me at that age if done in an interesting way. Probably involving ninjas.

Also....I assume school still gives kids the impression that the only jobs worth having can only be got by going to uni. Presenting the different things you can do......and why many ‘non academic’ jobs are also great would be a useful service to kids in my opinion.

[louiebaby]

I'd also there is value in helping them realise how the world works. The quote from Fight Club is something that kids need to learn, along with the concept of inflation and compound interest:

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy st we don't need."

They also want to learn that they'll never be happy comparing what they have to what others have. There will always be someone else with more.

If (for instance) you are working with a kid who might end up being a plumber, his life might go a number of ways, but the three most likely are:

1. Works for someone else as a plumber for the rest of his life.
2. Works for someone else as a plumber, then sets up and works for himself.
3. Works for someone else as a plumber, then sets up and works for himself, then takes on employees, building it into a proper plumbing business of his own.

There is nothing wrong with any of them. How he treats the rest of his time at school might change how easy it is to transition through the stages if he wants to. If he dosses about at school, he might find it a lot harder to go through the stages to the last stage.

I any case, the customer service bit from my previous applies. Word of mouth about being a competent, pleasant, and polite plumber will mean that setting up on his own will be a hell of a lot easier. Word of mouth can really make a massive difference in all walks of life.

[KevinCamaroSS]

Presenting themselves well is always useful. Get them to do a 5-minute presentation about themselves and then discuss the good and bad bits.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Great ideas folks I love the Fight Club Quote - gonna use that! And the < easy to forget how much you didn’t know when that age is very true.

At their age I was still carving initials into desks, not having access to a computer suite & visiting grown-ups that aren't teachers!

[louiebaby]

I spent a day a couple of weeks ago interviewing MSc students for their dissertation projects. I'll find out today which two will come and spend two months in our offices working on their projects, including a couple of weeks travelling to our remote bases to see how things work, and try to improve them.

Some of them were mature students, who did very well in interview, but most of them were sponsored by their employers, so didn't really help our ambitions of finding a good student to progress to full employment. We were really looking at the students who had come straight through the education system, so didn't have any real work experience. (Apart from summer work and Saturday jobs.)

It was very easy to pick out the candidates to put on the short list. They stood out a mile. They engaged with me. It was as simple as that.

Let's go back to what an employer is looking for when interviewing (generally.)

1. Can they do the job? (Experience / qualifications)
2. Will they do the job? (Work ethic)
3. Will they fit in with the existing team? (Personality)

For these younger kids, they will probably interview for roles like apprenticeships, or junior roles where they will receive training, so number 1 will be sort of covered. They will need to present themselves in a way that convinces the interviewer that they satisfy the other two.

The ones that asked me questions, and showed they were interested in the job, the factors affecting the business, that sort of thing went a long way. I found myself thinking about my 2 hour drive home. Would I be able to chat along with this student most of the way home, about all sorts of things, not just the job? Do they have something they are passionate about that they could talk about with someone who was interested in it for half an hour? Would they show interest and ask questions whilst I rabbited on about £1-5k Barges and why it's better to spend £15k on an old Range Rover than £25k on a Quasquai on finance?

Having something they are passionate about, and have worked hard on, perhaps as part of a team, really covers off the last two points well. It could be Duke of Edinburgh, Scouts, swimming camps, sailing, being on a rugby team, fencing, anything. They need to be able to show a passion for it, how they worked hard, and talk about what they achieved and how that made them feel. (And still be able to balance their school work / uni work and achieve the best grades they are capable of, which may not be a first or a string of A*s.)

Those are the kinds of people I want to spend time working with.

[Herbs]

Very few kids at that age are going to have even the faintest idea of what they want to do when they are older let alone realistic desires.

I think the biggest thing that affects people is doing a job they are not passionate about - even if they tolerate it.

Looking back to when I was a kid, I wish someone would have taken the time to find out what I was good at and what I was passionate about and suggest 4 or 5 careers and explain the pathway to them.

As an example, someone who is good at drawing could look at a career as

1) Graphic Designer
2) Marketing
3) Computer Game Designer
4) Tattooist
5) Artist


All very different career paths and different skill sets needed in addition to the ability to draw.