Schools in the South West can now sign up to a new programme of virtual career taster sessions to help students build valuable soft skills and career experience, thanks to a successful regional pilot - by Lloyds Banking Group (LBG).

The programme was launched to give the region’s future workforce a no-holds-barred insight into working life after the pandemic led to fewer students securing on-site work experience.

More than 230 15 to 18-year-olds took part in the programme during the last few weeks of the summer term, including students from Bristol’s Chew Valley School and Ashton Park School, and Gloucestershire’s Tewkesbury School.

Students were able to take part in up to nine different taster sessions, each giving them a window into the day-to-day life of occupations including software engineering, marketing communications management and financial management*.

Sessions were delivered virtually to individual classes, with Lloyds Banking Group alumni sharing first-hand experience of their role and their route to employment, while fielding students’ questions about careers.

Jeremy Hayward, Ambassador for the South West at Lloyds Banking Group, said:

“Work experience has played an important role in preparing young people for working life for many years, offering a valuable insight into potential careers and the skills needed.

“Yet changes to working life since the beginning of the pandemic have made it difficult to provide traditional work experience opportunities to school students. It’s been important to us to be able to provide an alternative that gives young people an informative, enjoyable and inspiring window into the world of work.

“We’re really pleased that the pilot was successful and we’re looking forward to hearing from schools that might like to take up the sessions now that we are rolling them out fully.”

The sessions also cover the eight non-academic skills that are identified by employers as essential for candidates to have, from listening and creativity to positivity and communication skills**.

Kate Rowlands, Deputy Head at Chew Valley School, said:

“Having an organisation like Lloyds Banking Group speak to the students about jobs and career paths really helps to demonstrate the variety of opportunities and highlights the many different career routes in big and small companies.

“Our students have found the sessions really engaging and interesting, offering a glimpse into the world of work that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to have had. It’s also helped them to focus on what skills they need to develop as part of their formal education to build a career where their interests lie.”