BRYANSTON hosts jp morgan for skills and learning afternoon for a3 pupils

The event was organised by Mr Bray, Head of Work Related Learning at Bryanston, and comprised three main sessions, including:

• CV and employability skills
• mock assessments
• interactive team challenges

The employability skills session demonstrated how to create the ultimate CV after examining good and bad CVs in the role of a recruiter. Groups of pupils discussed how to format a CV and what content should be included to impress and attract employers.

Pupils worked in teams for the mock assessment session, exploring how to perform well when under pressure. Pupils tried their hand at playing the role of the assessor, providing feedback to participants and considering the perspective of the recruiter in order to make the best impression possible.

For team-building activities, pupils were asked to work on a challenge using Lego. It has long been thought that Lego helps to enhance creative and critical-thinking skills. Curveballs were of course thrown in along the way, highlighting the importance of communication and teamwork in order to complete the challenge.

Mr Bray commented: "The work related learning afternoon was delivered with great energy, passion and gave our pupils an insight into the steps that a global business uses to select potential candidates. The feedback from pupils has been positive, with several of them commenting that it was particularly interesting having first year degree apprentices from JP Morgan delivering some of the activities. Pupils were able to relate to them and felt they could ask them specific questions, which made it even more enjoyable for them."

To complete the afternoon, JP Morgan discussed the skills being put into practice across all three sessions and summarised what pupils should take away from the afternoon. We’d like to say a special thank you to Old Bryanstonian Harry Suckling, who returned to Bryanston along with the JP Morgan apprentice team to deliver the activities.