Do you remember going to your school’s careers events? Let us guess… most of the careers presented to you were in industries like law, engineering and science?
Unfortunately, we’ve found whenever young adults are shown their options, careers in digital communications are rarely mentioned - despite being identified as one of the top 10 most in-demand freelance skills for 2022.
We’ve always been advocates for great education and opening doors for students, and we’ve finally been able to get back out and about post-lockdown!
Over the past few months, members of Team J&PR have been touring Shropshire schools, virtually and in-person, in a bid to share the exciting world of digital communications with students at career and work experience events - and we’ve loved every minute of it!
We believe letting young adults know they have options no matter what route they’d like to take is extremely important. We know better than anyone one glove doesn’t always fit all - despite what some may say!
So where have we been recently?
Which career and work experience events has Team J&PR been to?
As one of J&PR's most passionate advocates for education and development, Kirsty regularly visits local schools as a guest speaker to encourage students to consider the importance of getting to know an industry, role and style of job before setting off on their career journey. One such school was Redhill Primary Academy where she recently spoke to students about her life as a journalist.
She also recently visited Lawley Primary School, where she proudly holds the role of Chair of Governors, to talk to Year 6 pupils about blogging. While these students are far from beginning their career journey, helping students navigate their way through school with their future in mind is her main goal.
Through her link to Shropshire Chamber of Commerce as a trainer, Kirsty also promotes J&PR's ability to train Kickstarters, apprentices and new starters from a range of industries, whether that be through one of our training courses or with one of our Two Hour Takeovers.
Rhea is also no stranger to speaking in front of a classroom, annually attending a careers events at The Priory School in Shrewsbury to talk to students about their options once they finish school.
Similarly, Sophie enjoys speaking to students about the opportunities available to them. After dropping out of university when she realised it wasn’t the right path for her, Sophie excelled by undertaking an apprenticeship with J&PR - a story she is eager to share with others to remind them of the different paths they can take.
She recently volunteered to share her story at a Careers Speed Networking event at The Grove School in Market Drayton, where businesses were invited to chat about their sector and job roles to a small group of students in Year 8, and with HLC in Telford through a virtual presentation. We are also Business Buddies at HLC too. Sophie has also made an appearance at the Haberdashers’ Abraham Darby Careers’ Fair to represent J&PR and share her passion for digital communications with others.
J&PR has been passionate about supporting education for a long time - and of course were winners of Shropshire Chamber of Commerce for Business and School Engagement in 2019 - which is why we have a number of people set to join us at our Wellington office over the summer months for their work experience. We had Anja and Arabella join us this summer!
We look forward to sharing a snapshot of the world as digital communicators - whether that be writing a press release, social media schedule or creating content such as a blog or case study.
As a business, we will always advocate the importance of work experience, providing opportunities for young people in the local community whenever we can - after all, we wouldn’t have met our Digital Assistant Freya Morris without it!