MERLIN
BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY 51
MERLIN
Students said that they had learnt ideas of how they should conduct themselves in a professional environment and many were left with positive attitudes about BT.
The EMN members involved also rated the workshop very highly, commenting that they enjoyed the interaction and feedback from the students.
This current round of workshops – of which the BT EMN is only the first of a number to come over the next few months – consist of a number of exercises designed to help pupils discover new skills and enjoy new experiences.
These include a mock company exercise, trading skills, time management and an interview of staff from the host company about their jobs and how they got them.
This Q & A session is a particularly important part of the day as it provides students with a one – to – one opportunity to get inspired and to seek out what it takes to work in the City by asking what sorts of jobs are available, what sort of jobs their BAME mentors are doing, what skills are needed and to discuss the diversity of the workforce.
One teacher commented:“ The interview( Q & A) was fantastic as pupils literally started to take control over their careers.”
Further workshops were staged by other partners in the MERLIN project including: Channel 4 on December 5th, Merrill Lynch on January 19th, Goldman Sachs on February 16th and Barclays Bank on March 17th.
Anyone interested in getting involved in future MERLIN projects should contact Khin Tye at Business in the Community t: 0207 566 8779 e: khin. tye @ bitc. org. uk
Reprinted with permission by Aequalis, newsletter for BT Ethnic Minority Network( Nov 2006).
ISSUE THREE 2007 engage | uk