Getting the most out of Work Experience

 

Telephone the placement company before your work placement:

• to introduce yourself  to your  placement supervisor

• to ask for information about the company, what tasks you will be doing on the placement  and to confirm some practical arrangements (e.g. clothing, start and finish times)
• to answer questions from your placement supervisor, which might include explaining what you want from the placement.

 

Practice Active Listening – pay attention to other people so that they feel you understand what they are saying. You may need to do this in the following situations:

• induction briefing –  e.g. about health and safety procedures

• explanation of work tasks

• taking messages from customers or colleagues

• in team meetings where key facts and decisions are discussed

• listening and observing colleagues to learn new skills or techniques

• dealing with customers or service users

 

Speak clearly and logically:

• think through what you want to say, making sure you get the information in a logical order and do not forget anything
• write down the key points in order
• How clear was the information? Was anything missed out? Was the tone and speed appropriate?

 

Prepare for face-to-face meetings – you may need to do this with your supervisor  to:

• discuss your progress during a placement

• be given specific information about a particular task that you have been asked to do

• report or discuss a problem that may have arisen.

 

Take the opportunity to talk to people about their jobs, what they do and how they got there.

Employability

You may hear a lot about Employability – but what exactly does it mean?

Employability is about making sure young people have the skills, qualifications and personal attributes to get a job, preferably in a sector they really enjoy.

Even though getting a job might seem a long way off, you will already be developing your employability skills through any work experience you do, writing personal statements, having college interviews and choosing subjects in areas you might want to work in.

  it’s never too early to start planning…

A new website has been launched offering practical advice to young people getting ready for work http://www.whatemployerswant.org/

The British Chambers of Commerce will launch its ‘Your Future’ programme this month which will hold 250 career events aimed improving the career prospects of young people. http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/press-office/press-releases/career-skills-in-spotlight-as-schools-return.html

More useful links looking at skills and careers – they all have suggestions about career options and looking for a job

https://www.barclayslifeskills.com/about/

https://www.plotr.co.uk/

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers.htm

http://www.futuremorph.org

“Out-of-the-box thinkers” able to take a “helicopter view” are 72% less likely to get a job

CVs that claim to be able to take a ‘helicopter view,’ be ‘results-orientated’ or ‘out-of-the-box thinkers’ capable of ‘shifting the paradigm’ are 72% less likely to get candidates through to interview or to secure a job because they contain so much jargon.*

The research, undertaken by O2, forms part of their Think Big programme which is designed to help young people build their skills and employability and the gap between education and the workplace.

O2 Think Big found that one third of employers spend a minute or less reading each CV they receive, making snap judgments. They say that over-use of jargon, spelling or grammar errors or over-designed CVs mean they will immediately reject a candidate’s application.

Now, the top ten worst pieces of management speak that crop up in resumes from candidates has been identified. The research asked those involved in recruitment at UK companies to pick out the worst pieces of jargon and then rank them based on their (over) use.

The worst pieces of CV jargon

1.       “Able to take a helicopter view” (23%)

2.       “Shifting the paradigm” (18%)

3.       “Blue sky thinking” (14%)

4.       “Out-of-the-box thinking” (13%)

5.       “Results-orientated” (7%)

6.       “Road-mapping” (5%)

7.       “Strong interpersonal skills” (5%)

8.       “Leveraging my skills” (5%)

9.       “Critical thinker” (4%)

10.   “Dynamic team player” (4%)

To help combat the problem of jargon-use in CVs, O2 Think Big has teamed up with Do-it.org, the UK’s largest digital volunteering service, to launch a free mobile app (available for Android and for iOS in the near future) called Gro (http://gothinkbig.co.uk/gro). The new tool – primarily aimed at young people who may be hunting for their first role in the world of work – helps them to translate volunteering and extra-curriculum activities into language that is recognised, understood and valued by employers.

For example, if a young person has mentored or coached someone, the app will point to their listening skills. If they’ve fundraised for a charitable cause, Gro will highlight their creativity, influencing skills and trustworthiness. If they’ve campaigned for a cause they believe in, Gro will pick out their skills in communication as well as motivating and convincing others to get involved.

A recent report from CIPD encourages more employers to include questions about volunteering and social action as part of the selection process – in order to unlock young people’s “hidden talents” and experiences. According to the #iwill campaign, approximately 3 million people aged between 10 and 20 years old (12%) have undertaken volunteering and social action activity across the UK, but need help to translate the skills and experience they gain through volunteering into “CV speak”.

Jamie Ward-Smith, CEO at Do-it.org comments:  “Volunteering can provide amazing opportunities to boost career development. Enabling young people to translate their social action experiences into CV friendly terms that can impress prospective employers is a great way to demonstrate this and give young volunteers a boost in a competitive jobs market. The new Gro mobile app does just that and we’re thrilled to have worked together with O2 to launch this important new tool.”

To find out more and download the free Gro app, visit www.gothinkbig.co.uk/gro

* research conducted amongst a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK adults on 23 November 2015, of whom 49% who responded “Yes, I regularly review CVs from prospective candidates as part of my job role” were used as the base.

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2016

This week at SATRO, we have had lots going on as part of British Science Week 2016...

LEGO WeDo Workshop at Kingfield Primary School
On Wednesday 16th March, SATRO delivered a LEGO WeDo workshop for primary students at Kingfield Primary School, Pupils worked in pairs to design, engineer and programme robots using LEGO bricks, a computer, a motor and other special elements. Pupils learnt to incorporate tilt and motion sensors into their designs. They then tested their initial designs and programming; after reflecting on what did or did not work, the pupils learnt to consult with peers, adapt their programming, and adjust their designs. 


SATRO Mega-Structures Challenge at Pirbright Village Primary SchoolToday, we are at Pirbright Village Primary School delivering a Mega-Structures Workshop. 60 Year 5 pupils will be tested on their engineering skills. The day involves using design and build techniques, combined with team work to create a shelter that could be sent to a refugee camp for them to cover with plastic sheeting. This event has kindly been sponsored by Beard Construction.

SATRO 2016 Problem Solving Challenge Grand Final at ACS Cobham International School

The regional final of the SATRO Problem Solving Challenge will be held at ACS Cobham International School this evening. Teams of 6 students from schools all over Surrey and bordering areas will be tested on their engineering skills and scientific knowledge during this challenging event - all for a grand prize awarded to their school! This event has kindly been sponsored by Allianz, The Manly Trust, Give-It-Away, The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers, Frazer Nash and IChemE. 

B-Involved STEM Challenge - Bouygues UK, SATRO and Runnymede Borough Council

Tomorrow morning, 5 teams from three schools located in Runnymede will be taking to the council chambers to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.  This year's STEM Challenge is being supported by the partners on the Addlestone One scheme along with members of the local construction industry. The students have been set the challenge of developing proposals to enhance the sustainability of the Addlestone development, as well as coming up with innovative ideas to make Addelstone a destination of choice for young people. During the past couple of months, each team has had the opportunity to seek advice from industrial mentors from Bouygues UK, BAM Construction Ltd, Crest Nicholson and Thorpe Park, on sustainability designs and processes. 

LEGO Dacta Workshop at Guildford Library's 'Geek Week'

On Satruday 19th March, SATRO will be delivering it's second LEGO workshop of the week. This time SATRO will be working with Guildford Library during their 'Geek Week' in celebration of British Science Week 2016. Children and parents will be programming the LEGO RoboLab RCX to open the car park barrier, change the traffic control lights and close automatically as their model car cuts the light beam that triggers the sensor. 

To find out how you can get involved with our events, email contactus@satro.org.uk or visit our website www.satro.org.uk

TOP TEN PIECES OF CAREER ADVICE - National Careers Week 2016

1. Study and work in whatever seemingly unrelated areas you are interested in, even if it's just a hobby. That way, when your dream job/business comes up, you'll be perfectly and uniquely qualified for it.                                    - Sarah Jansen, writer and editor



2. Important, exciting careers aren't linear or clearly defined.    
                                                                                - Anonymous  



3. Don't be better, be different. You might not have the exact experience listed on the job description, but if you can show how your unique skills would better suit the company, you have a better shot than someone who is a more technical match.
                                                                              - John Fawkes, Blogger and Career Coach


4. You can learn a lot hanging out by the printer. 
                                                                              - Anonymous



5. You don't get ahead by doing your job well - you get ahead by making new things happen that weren't a part of your job description.        
                                                                             - Victor Wong, CEO of PaperG



6. Attitude > Aptitude.                                        - Anonymous



7. Your main goal at work should be to learn and contribute. Success and promotion will follow from there.                                            - Laura Cooke



8. Talk openly about your failures. People will respect and trust you if they see that you're taking risks and aren't ashamed to learn from them.
                                                                              - Mira Zaslove


9. The best job for you won't be ready at the exact time you are 'ready'. You have to be open to and searching for opportunity all the time.                        
                                                                              - John Fawkes, Blogger and Career Coach


10. Ultimately, your career is largely a concept that exists in your mind. What you really have is a series of jobs, strung together, that form a story you are in charge of writing.
                                                                              - Blaine Lee Pardoe

For more tips and information about career opportunities in Surrey, join SATROclub. Register by emailing satroclub@satro.org.uk

Giving Tuesday - why give? by guest blogger and SATRO Patron James Dubois

At a time when our minds are full of the recent horrific terrorist murders in Paris, it is perhaps good to focus on what we, personally, can do to help others. Rather than sit back and leave actions to others, we should consider what difference each of us could make to the lives and opportunities of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Material objects and hedonistic pleasures are but a fleeting pleasure: how much better to give to worthy causes with which we can identify. Whether it be £1, £100 or £1,000 – start with some gift, of any amount, to help others. It’s a good habit that rewards the donor as much as it enriches the recipient. Gifts freely donated will probably not change your standard of life, but they may make a big difference to those who need the funds.

Are you ready to make a habit of giving and, in the process, enrich your own life?

- James Dubois, SATRO Patron

If you would like to give to SATRO you can do so by texting SATR11 to 70070 or visit our website to find out how else you can support us. 

SATRO TO BE GUILDFORD’S MAYORAL CHARITY 2015/2016

We are delighted to have been chosen by recently appointed Mayor of Guildford, Councillor Nikki Nelson-Smith.

Nikki’s vision for her Mayoral Year is “Inspiring Guildford’s Future Innovators”; she believes that young people should be encouraged, inspired and motivated to be the best that they can be; they should be better informed about the career choices available and increase their knowledge of the amazing career opportunities here on their doorstep in Guildford.  The Mayor of Guildford, Cllr Nikki Nelson-Smith commented, “We are lucky to have so many world-class innovative companies in the Borough who are looking for bright and creative employees”.

Dr Beccy Bowden, CEO of SATRO said “We are honoured that Cllr Nelson-Smith has chosen SATRO to partner with to deliver her vision for young people in Guildford who are inspired by local career opportunities. We have a fantastic heritage of innovation in the town and we know that many of our companies are struggling to recruit people with key skills - I hope that our work this year will ensure that even more world class breakthroughs and developments happen here in the future.”

Over the past 30 years SATRO has worked with over 450,000 young people in Guildford and indeed across Surrey inspiring and enthusing them about science, technology, engineering and maths by linking businesses and young people together through their varied, innovative range of challenging hands on programmes.  Nikki intends to support and inspire creativity in the young people of Guildford whether they be artists, technologists or scientists and to help them to aspire to their dream careers.

What makes a scientist an outstanding leader? - Dr Rebecca Bowden

Listening to Radio 4 over the Summer I overheard a programme debating the challenges for Afghanistan as the new Government was faced with trying to pull together a highly fractured society. The interviewee was of the opinion that several of the candidates for leadership in the new government had more of a chance of bringing together all the warring factions than their predecessors because of their scientific and technical backgrounds (the new President is an anthropologist and the CEO a doctor of medicine; several of the senior leaders have engineering doctorates). The interviewee seemed to think that the ability to analyse complex problems in a dispassionate way was precisely what the country needed. I'm not sure this ability is unique to scientists and engineers – and it seems to me that whoever is to take on the job of bringing Afghanistan from the brink of self-destruction will have to be a pretty outstanding and remarkable individual – but it got me thinking about the qualities of an outstanding leader and whether there were any that were particularly found amongst scientists and engineers.

Some weeks later, I visited the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, where I was reminded that the chief reason that I first got interested in becoming a scientist was because of the remarkable stories of individual scientists and engineers. It was the human qualities of those individuals that fascinated me, not just the hard facts about their scientific work.

One of strongest qualities required of a good scientist, and a good leader too, is perseverance: The ability to keep going through many set-backs. As Marie-Curie, the recipient of Nobel Prizes in two different fields, and a rather remarkable woman, said ‘Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves’.

Of course blind perseverance in the face of all the evidence is not a quality of a good leader.  Scientists and Engineers must be good at taking risks and being willing to fail. The Mathematician and Biologist Jacob Bronowski put it best when he said: ‘Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think’.

Sometimes when we first encounter science in school we assume that science involves the learning of lots of facts correctly – when actually it is more about the great detective story of piecing all the evidence together and coming up with a theory – then testing that theory to see if it is the right one. In my experience inspiring leaders need some degree of fallibility – to be wrong sometimes and to admit it – to balance their willingness to take risks. Niels Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922 said, ‘an expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field’. Most exceptional leaders have made a whole heap of mistakes along the way – but they have always learnt form them.

Of course both the above qualities are nothing without good communication, remembering that this is a two way process. A good scientist (and leader) can clearly explain complex ideas, and paint a verbal picture of their vision, no matter who is in their audience. But they must also be able to listen. As that great communicator, the astronomer, Carl Sagan said, ‘Valid criticism does you a favour’.

One of the most attractive qualities of scientists and engineers I think, is that they are always questioning, always learning – it makes them fascinating people to hang around with. As Isaac Newton said, ‘to myself I am only a child playing on the beach, whilst vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me’. Many years later Charles Darwin, who made some great discoveries but got a few things spectacularly wrong, said ‘I love fool’s experiments, I am always making them’. It is this sense of wonder that I found most appealing about science growing up, I think.

Of course the qualities I've listed are not unique to scientists – and are not enough on their own perhaps to make a great leader – but maybe if we could teach science in a way that demonstrated these very human qualities of scientists and engineers, we could inspire more young people to enter a profoundly rewarding career? And maybe if we could remind scientists and engineers that they have all these qualities, we could also show them what good leaders they could make?

- Dr Rebecca Bowden, CEO SATRO

Have you ever considered a career in Chemistry?

Chemists study various chemical elements and compounds, their properties and how they work together in our bodies and also the world around us.

Specialist fields in chemistry include biochemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, nuclear chemistry, physical chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry and analytical chemistry.

Important subjects related to chemistry include other sciences (physics, biology) English, algebra, calculus and computer science.

It helps for chemists to have versatile science knowledge. Good chemists would usually have;

·         An eye for detail

·         Scientific, numerical and technical skills

·         An enquiring mind

·         Logical approach to solving problems

·         Patience and persistence

·         Leadership and team working skills

·         The ability to make decisions

·         Good spoken and written communication skills

·         IT skills

Those who study chemistry can find jobs as researchers, laboratory technicians, teachers and other important roles. You could be;

·         Saving lives through development of new medicines

·         Analysing the environment and investigating climate change

·         Protecting health by keeping water supplies clean

·         Creating new products and controlling quality in the food industry

·         Finding ways to dispose of industrial waste safely

·         Inventing new artificial materials

·         Diagnosing and treating illnesses or diseases

·         Analysing forensic evidence in criminal investigations

·         Teaching, lecturing and academic research

Chemists are in very high demand in all sectors, particularly in industries such as the production of chemicals and pharmaceutical products.

Trainee graduate chemists can earn between £16,000 and £22,000 a year. With experience this can rise to between £25,000 and £35,000 a year. (figures are a guideline only)

You will usually need a degree in chemistry, applied or analytical chemistry, biochemistry or a related scientific subject. Many employers will also want you to have a relevant postgraduate qualification such as an MSc, MChem, MSci, MPhil, or PhD.

For more information…

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/chemist.aspx

www.wisecampaign.org.uk

www.futuremorph.org

www.nhscareers.nhs.uk

http://www.futuremorph.org/14-16/next-steps/follow-your-favourite-subject/careers-from-chemistry/which-other-subjects-fit-with-chemistry/

INCREASE IN STUDENTS STUDYING STEM - GENDER GAP STILL PRESENT

The number of students studying STEM subjects and A-lever is still growing, for the fifth year in a row, according to official figures, however a gender gap is still occurring.Maths is now the most popular A-level among students, with 88,816 candidates, after English slipped down to second place amid a 4.6% fall in entries. The number of girls studying physics has increased by 4.7% however there is still a significant gap between the number of boys taking this subject compared to girls. We are slowly heading in the right direction, with more students taking up STEM subjects. However, it is important that there is a concerted effort between government, industry and the education sector to continue driving students into STEM, but also an increased effort to close the gender gap.

Visit this website for more details and statistics covering this subject.