Virtual Work Experience Opportunities

Speakers for Schools Experience logo-340

Speakers for Schools Experience Programme have a large selection of virtual work experience currently available. Many of these are with UK companies and pupils from NI are eligible to apply.

Pupils must first register at https://www.s4snextgen.org/ to avail of these opportunities.

Please note that all applications are not guaranteed to be successful due to the large number of applicants for each experience.

 

Find below a sample of some of the opportunities currently available. Students are strongly advised to check regularly for new opportunities!

 

Green Skills Week 2021 – VWEX – Build Yourself with Wates – London & South

Supporting Green Skills Week 2021, Wates are excited to offer a virtual work experience week focusing on Sustainability.

The construction industry is one of the largest users of global resources and contributors of pollution. It therefore has a huge responsibility to aid sustainability. But what exactly is sustainable construction and what are the benefits? Join our VWEX to find out more!

A range of fun and challenging projects and tasks focused around sustainability throughout the week

  • Virtual site tours, Q&A panels and interactive webinars featuring Wates apprentices and industry professionals
  • A chance to explore opportunities in the industry and learn more about the roles available
  • Build employability skills such as good communication, presentation skills and team working
  • Opportunity to network with industry professionals, gain a reference and build on your CV

Duration: 4 Day/s   –  6 – 9 April 2021

Industry: Construction

Department(s): Environmental, Engineering, Design, Community Engagement, Architecture

Closing Date: 06/03/2021

 

 

Being green is fundamental to our business – Green Skills Week 2021 – Thames Water

Are you interested in a green skills career or simply love the environment? Join us to find out how we’re working together with customers and communities to care for the world around us.

At Thames Water, being green is fundamental to our business. We have some incredibly rich and diverse habitats in our region, so we do all we can to conserve them. Did you know we have over 100 sites open for you to explore? They’re not only home to some of the country’s rarest wildlife, but they’re also a haven for local communities. We believe access to the great outdoors can greatly benefit health, wellbeing and quality of life.

At our Virtual Insight Day, you’ll get the opportunity to:

Meet the people in Thames Water who help to look after the environment and plan for a more sustainable future

Learn how we’re increasing areas for local wildlife to thrive and reducing our corporate carbon footprint through new ways of working and innovative technologies

Find out about how we recycle on a massive scale – and how we’re using poo power to be more energy self-sufficient!

There’ll be a variety of activities for you to take part in, including quizzes, an environmental challenge and talks from some of our team who are experts in the environment.

The session will run from 10am until 1pm

Duration: 1 Day/s – 7th April 2021

Industry: Utilities

Department(s): Environmental

Closing Date: 07/03/2021

 

 

Green Skills Week 2021: National Competition – Reducing single use plastics – Speaker for Schools

Are you powered with passion to protect our environment?

We have heard from Greta Thunberg that we are not doing enough to fight climate change and it is coming down to young people like you to fight for our future.

In the lead up to Green Skills Week 2021, we are hosting this UK wide competition. Inviting you to express your voice to innovate solutions to our environmental problems.

Globally we are producing 300 million tonnes of plastic each year and half of it is single use plastic. This impacts our oceans with tonnes of plastic harming sea life, coral and ecosystems. In Partnership with our main sponsors, this challenge is set around reducing single use plastics.

During the competition, you will team up with like-minded young people from across the UK to compete in our Green Skills National Competition.

This think tank will see green skills in action as you learn more about the problem of single use plastics. Hearing from the employer about their industry, employees and how they combat reducing plastics in their work place. Working collaboratively in teams to creative solutions around this theme with the support of an employer mentor. All teams will then submit a video of their idea and pitch it to an expert panel. Our expert panel will choose the most innovative idea to win the battle to reduce singe use plastics.

The winners will receive a coaching session from an eminent VIP, a place on our National Green Skills Youth Council and press promotion as a green skills hero.

This is a great opportunity for anyone with a passion for the environment to learn new skills, meet employers and work on a global solution in our Green Skills National Competition.

Duration: 1 Day/s – 29th March 2021

Industry: Environment

Department(s): Youth Engagement

Closing Date: 15/03/2021

 

Carmody Groarke- Architecture Insight Evening – Carmody Groarke

Carmody Groarke is a London based architectural practice founded in 2006 by Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke.

The practice has developed a reputation for working internationally on a wide range of arts, cultural, heritage and commercial projects, both new build and within the context of historic buildings.

Our insight session will give an overview of the architecture industry, different routes into the profession and what opportunities a degree in architecture can offer. This will be followed up by an insight into the working life of Carmody Groarke`s studio. We will run through several live projects to explain our design process and the architect`s role in delivering buildings.

The session will be opened up at the end for questions and further discussion about what a career in architecture can offer to young people.

If you have any specific questions for us, please include these when you make your application to join us.

The Architecture Insight Evening will take place on Thursday 25th March from 5pm. We will send you an invitation with details of how to log in closer to the time.

Duration: 1 Day/s – Thursday 25th March 2021

Industry: Architecture

Department(s): Architecture

Closing Date: 18/03/2021

 

Unleash your coding hero with Kainos!

We’re delighted to offer students from Northern Ireland, aged 14-19 a virtual insight into what it’s like to work in IT. Over the 3 days that you’ll spend with us, you will get to experience a taste of everything we do here at Kainos, meet our people, and get hands-on experience of web development.

No clue about IT or coding? No problem! At the start of the week you’ll be assigned a mentor who’s there to help every step of the way. We will help to grow your skills, teach you more about the world-changing projects we work on, and we’ll demo some of the cutting-edge technologies that we use. Using coding challenges, you’ll then put everything you’ve learned into action by creating your own web applications!

Do you want to understand more about the sector? Or how an office works? Do you fancy building your communication skills, problem solving or IT Skills? Are you interested in Team work, project life cycles and learning Industry basics? Then this is the experience for you! We want students who are willing to learn, keen to try new things and are enthusiastic, to join us. At the end of the sessions, you’ll not only have become a Coding hero, we’ll provide a Kainos branded certificate for your CV.

IT Skills are essential for the Jobs of the Future, so get a head start on your next steps and sign up today. We can’t wait to meet you.

Duration: 3 Day/s – 13 – 15 April 2021

Industry: IT

Department(s): Software/Website Development

Closing Date: 29/03/2021

 

PwC Virtual Insight Week

If you’re in Year 12 in England and Wales, Year 13 in Northern Ireland or S5 in Scotland, and you’re keen to understand how you can progress your career in the world of business, accounting or technology at PwC, our virtual Insight Week offers you a fantastic opportunity.

Throughout the Virtual Insight Week (Monday 26 July – Friday 30 July 2021), you`ll have the opportunity to gain lots of valuable skills, and explore your career options with PwC. You may be interested in doing an apprenticeship, going to university, or you’re still not sure, and you simply want to find out more about PwC and the different areas of PwC that you could join. The Virtual Insight Week will help you to answer these questions by giving you an insight into lots of our different business areas, and you’ll hear from staff who have joined PwC through a range of pathways and programmes.

You’ll get to try out some of these different business areas for yourself through interactive workshops and demonstrations. Some of the technical skills sessions will be differentiated so that you’re able to select either a ‘beginner’ or ‘advanced’ level based on your individual experience of a topic. You’ll also take part in a variety of skills sessions on topics such as wellbeing, resilience and personal values. These sessions will equip you with the skills and knowledge to help you succeed with a future application to PwC and beyond.

We’ve created a selection of virtual sessions for you: a mixture of both live and pre-recorded sessions for you to work through during the week. You’ll also be given an exciting project to work on, where you’ll be playing the role of a business consultant. Working virtually in a team, you’ll undertake research and produce your own proposal for the client, which you’ll then be able to share with PwC.

Programme highlights:

  • An introduction to PwC
  • Hear from people at PwC about their roles and careers
  • Project-based experience and insight into the type of work we do
  • Opportunities to develop key employability skills

The programme will run virtually across the five days. For the optimum experience, you’ll need a laptop or computer and internet connection to join the online sessions, but many sessions will also be accessible via a smartphone as well. The week will include both live and recorded sessions to offer you as much flexibility as possible and it will be down to you to choose which sessions you’d like to attend across the week. If you don’t currently have a personal laptop or you’re worried about your internet connection, please do still apply to the programme. It’s very important to us that this opportunity is available to students regardless of their personal situation and we may be able to provide support with access to the necessary equipment. We’ll be contacting all successful applicants regarding what support may be available after we have confirmed offers for the programme.

Duration: 5 Day/s – 26 – 30 July 2021

Industry: Accounting

Department(s): Finance & Accounting

Closing Date: 12/03/2021

 

Sustainability and achieving Net-Zero by 2030 with SSE – Green Skills Week 2021

In this session, you will explore the theme of sustainability. Using a range of case studies and examples, this session will focus on the all-encompassing idea of sustainability in relation to city planning. We will delve into what SSE are doing to be a leading energy company in a net-zero world (as well as the UK governments 2050 net-zero pledge) and will then extend this knowledge to think about what is needed to build a sustainable city. You will be required to think about sustainability in terms of energy, transport, city planning and food production/distribution.

Learning Outcomes

  1. You will be able to define what sustainability is and how it relates to your own life.
  2. Understand what energy companies like SSE are doing to help achieve the successful development, efficient operation, and responsible ownership of energy infrastructure.
  3. Apply your knowledge of sustainability to help think about developing a city of the future.

Duration 1 Day/s: 6th April 2021

Industry: Energy

Department(s): Workshop, Technology, Strategy & Planning, Environmental, Engineering, Corporate, Business

Closing Date: 06/03/2021