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On the 11th December, 18 year 8 students and staff from King Edmund School set off from school and took the train from Rochford to Central London for an exciting World of Work experience at Twitter HQ. Despite the long and busy journey, the children were focused and followed instructions to stay together.
On arrival at Piccadilly Circus the group walked to Golden Square and were split into groups of 4 or 5 and together with an adult set up to carry out a scavenger hunt.
A form was given to each student with questions regarding the history of the square and interesting details they could observe in and around the square.
Despite high levels of excitement, most focused very well on the task in hand, looking for clues on the information boards and checking details in the square and surrounding buildings; they took ‘selfies’ with the statue in the centre of the square (as per instructions) and seemed overall quite motivated to carry out the activity well.
Once at the Twitter offices we were taken to several places and showed around for a little tour of the building!
After this we settled into a large room with tables and were introduced to some very interesting people that work in the different departments at Twitter, performing various roles (e.g. lawyer, marketing, statistics, software improvements, social media).
All the students were very attentive and respectful and showed genuine interest while listening to the speakers. After the talks, students had a chance to ask questions to the staff at Twitter about their work, how they started working at Twitter and what they liked/disliked more about their jobs. Lots of the students asked interesting questions!
Following a delicious, healthy lunch we were introduced to other spaces in which workers at Twitter spend time and our guide explained to us the purpose and use of the spaces and more details of the work that takes place at Twitter.
Later on we were introduced to other workers and the last activity of the day took place. We were playing ‘Dragon’s Den’. Each team had to come up with a new app that would help people find a job easily. All the teams were super involved in this activity and very good work was produced.
Some students focused on creating and drawing logos and images for the application, others were specifying the function and details of the mobile app and most of the children together in their teams talked about the content of the pitch and the order of presentation of their ideas.
After the time had finished to think about the app and create a pitch, all the teams one by one presented their ideas. Despite some initial nerves during the pitch, all the students were really involved and brave presenting in front of more than 40 people some totally unknown to them in an unfamiliar environment!
A MASSIVE Thank you to the team at Twitter who put on an incredible World of Work Day for us! Our students gained so much from the experience and came away buzzing with creativity and inspiration.
Our World of Work days are an integral part of our Yes Futures programmes.
To find out more about the programmes and how we can support your students, please contact Sophie Bartlett: sophie@yesfutures.org
If you are a business that would like to hear more about how to get involved in our World of Work opportunities please contact info@yesfutures.org