Career Academies Ice breaker!
Tuesday 29th Feb: The Career Moves Group team headed back to Queens Park Community School to follow on from our initial meeting with the students on the Career Academies programme.
Yesterday it was time to “break the ice” with our mentees and also partake in a little team building exercise… The Balloon Tower! (Patience: I will explain more in due course).
Ben, Olivia, Alex, Tara and I (George) met with our individual students and literally smashed through the ice…well, we had a really good chat that’s for sure…We discussed what careers they think they may be interested in and what they expected to gain from their time on the Career Academies programme.
These guys have stacks of ambition. It would be fair to say there is some real variance amongst the students, wanting to be anything from Big City Investment bankers to West End Media Markettiers!
We discussed future meeting times with our students and how we could help prepare them for higher education and/or employment, gain an insight into “workplace etiquette” and discuss different options they have for their futures.
Now, good things come to those who wait: The Balloon Tower Challenge…
All the Mentors (Partners in Business) both from Career Moves Group and other companies joined their mentees. Then we were grouped into three teams of around 4 or 5 pairs.
We were given a box with around 40 balloons in, scissors, string and some sticky tape. The challenge was that each team would compete to see who could build the highest free standing tower. Needless to say this exercise acted as a practical demonstration of how we all need to work cohesively together in the workplace to succeed in achieving one shared goal.
 |
| Step one - blowing up balloons! |
All three teams (although some lacking the end product) worked together well to listen to each others ideas, discuss and respect others views on how to create the highest, most stable tower.
Aarti (QPCS student) - “It was an amusing experience- a great way to communicate together as a team”
Turab (QPCS student) - “It was a good way of learning how to work with people you don’t know!”
Bethan (Partner in Business) - “Immense team building exercise”
Tara, Career Moves Group (Partner in Business) –“It’s very interesting to see the different ways in which people communicate and take hold of a situation. This was a good example of how working together can achieve results”
 |
| Each team had really different ideas of how to build their Balloon Towers |
Needless to say my team won, convincingly…Our tower stood at 250 centimetres… “Unbelievable!” I hear you shriek, “How did you do it” you cry!?
Well just slow on down there one moment, I asked Alex what she felt gave our team that extra edge to win on the day:
“Everybody worked together really well and listened to each others suggestions, communication is key!”
The afternoon was a success and we all had a chance to get to know the students a little better and of course set some goals, times and dates set for our next meeting where we will begin to outline where they will look to do their internships and provide advice on how it could open doors for them in the future.
Returning again to the programme, Tim Powell from "Powell Gilbert" said "this is such a good idea, getting them ready to tackle the next stage- alot of young people dont have the access to opening doors in the world of work"
Returning again to the programme, Tim Powell from "Powell Gilbert" said "this is such a good idea, getting them ready to tackle the next stage- alot of young people dont have the access to opening doors in the world of work"
Until next time…
 |
| Aarti, Karam, Rokshar and Saif with George and Alex of Career Moves Group and other Partners in Business with the winning teams Balloon Tower |
 |
| Emmanuel, Nadira, Safiyyah and Remi with Olivia and Tara of Career Moves Group and other Partners in Business |
 |
| Turab, Bashirt and Waqar with Ben Coupland of Career Moves Group and other Partners in Business |
