Case Study 1

Work Experience

Broker

Central Berkshire EBP

Partner

Bulmershe School, Reading

Time frame

22nd – 26th October 2001


Methodology

Sam Pilling’s application form clearly indicated that he wanted a placement within a Graphic Design environment. Sam’s predicted Grades for GCSE’s were very high, particularly in areas of art and design. This, coupled with the enthusiasm he detailed on the back of his application form was enough for Kay Kwa from the Central Berkshire EBP to become determined to find him a placement within his specified area, despite placements of this nature being extremely hard to find.

Many telephone calls were made, with very little success. Eventually Kay managed to find a company which showed an interest. The organisation, Kempress Aztec, had previously taken students, but had found that they often lacked the required software experience to guarantee a successful placement. A placement could be offered if Sam could show he had this previous experience.

Unfortunately, upon contacting the school, Kay found out that Sam had not used this software before. Kay enquired as to whether Sam could find someone to give him a ‘crash course’ in Macintosh design, as this placement was likely to be the only one she could find.
Luckily, with two weeks to go before the start of placement, Sam found a family friend that was willing to tutor him during the evenings. With this information passed on to Helen Cook at Kempress, they agreed to take him on.

With 10 nights of experience under his belt, Sam started his work experience on the 22nd October.

A telephone call to Kempress mid week confirmed that Sam was doing very well, and was growing in confidence using the design software from day to day.

Rather than a standard evaluation form coming back at the end of the week, a letter was sent to both the EBP office and the students Father.

“As you are aware I was reluctant to accept another work experience student due to lack of knowledge of Mac’s as opposed to them using PC’s as taught in school, and their unwillingness to learn.

I would like to thank you for passing this on to Sam and for him to take the initiative to learn the skills required.

Sam worked exceptionally well within the team, and his ability to learn was second to none. He has a creative talent, which he should push to his ability, and I would envisage that he would have a very bright future in Design.

Thank you once again, and it was a pleasure having such a talented young man. We wish him every success in the future.”


Sam’s experience of working with Kempress was also this positive, and has made him more determined to enter this career in the future.

This year already, Kempress Aztec have offered two more placements to students interested in undertaking a period of design orientated work experience.



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