This was Career Footsteps event was like no other! Students from two Nottingham Academy campuses were welcomed to the HomeServe offices in Nottingham.
HomeServe is a provider of home repairs across the UK and four other countries. The students from Ransome Road and Greenwood campus were given the opportunity to explore the different careers at HomeServe, learn about apprenticeships, and had lots of fun working together in two different activities.
Once the students arrived they were introduced to the HomeServe team. They learnt about all the different services within HomeServe, and the variety of the backgrounds of their staff was highlighted, from former apprentices and psychology students.
The students were then split into three groups to explore the customer service section, visit the model studio flat and take part in a plumbing activity in teams. The students were accompanied by one of HomeServe’s enthusiastic apprentices.
Activity one explored the customer service front. Students were taken to the customer service section, where they learnt about the integral importance of customer satisfaction to the principles of HomeServe.
For the second activity, students visited the Model Studio Flat for a hazard perception activity. In a working model of a studio flat, they found the hazards present and had a chance to experience the sight of partially sighted customers with the use of dark goggles. It was a fun activity and the students learnt about the importance of being aware of all needs. They were then guided by the apprentices to demonstrate best practice in a variety of areas from carrying boxes, fixing boilers and customer care.
Interesting Fact: Before starting work, all members of the HomeServe repair team take a photo of the area in which they are working. So, they can return everything back to its original place.
The third activity, Plumbing disaster!, saw the students working in smaller teams to quickly create a path for the water to travel. There was an additional catch though. They couldn’t lose any water on the way. The winning team were those who saved the most amount of water.
Post event feedback from the students was very positive:
“I liked the water activity because it was challenging. You had to be creative and you had to use teamwork for it to work”
“People here were super friendly and we felt welcome”
“I didn’t know that this job was in depth as much as caring about the customer you have to care about your comfort and safety as well”
“The apprentice made it a good day they inspired to be a plumber”
The Career Footsteps programme run in partnership with the Edge Foundation, and aims to open students’ eyes to the wide range of routes they can take into the world of work with a focus on vocational and technical paths. The programme is open to all schools across the county and is completely free to use. Check out the Career Footsteps page for more information or contact us at enquiries@inspiringthefuture.org for direct enquiries.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please sign up at the top of the page.