Kimberley 16-19 STEM College and What Dale Learned
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Last week, Dale delivered 10 back-to-back sessions on LinkedIn and Work Experience at Kimberley 16-19 STEM College in Bedfordshire.
Running that many sessions in a row is always interesting.....you start to see the same patterns emerge again and again.
So whilst the students learnt about how to get the most from work experience and LinkedIn....here’s what Dale learned:
1️⃣ Around 50% of students already had a LinkedIn account.
2️⃣ But less than 15% had completed the basics - profile picture, banner, and headline.
3️⃣ And just 5% had actually posted their own content.
👉 So, that’s how easy it is to stand out as a young person on the platform.
Get the basics right, and you’re already ahead of 95%. 📈
Then this really stood out…
4️⃣ Every single student who had completed their profile and posted, had support from their wider network.
Sometimes it was a relative, but often it was a community or network - shout out to The Black Apprentice Network (BAN) as their name came up more than once.
5️⃣ Dale learnt that his “relatable” example… wasn’t that relatable 🤦🏻♂️
He shared a post from Steven Bartlett about how “embarrassment is the price of entry.”
He talks about how people don’t post, record, or launch things because they’re worried what others think.
But what surprised Dale was that about half the students hadn't heard of him. So his cool relatable example was less cool and relatable than he hoped. 🙄
6️⃣ And just when he could have been running out of energy…something happened.
After the 9th consecutive session, a teacher came in and told him a student had said it was the best talk he’d ever been to.....and that he was now really motivated to find work experience and get started on LinkedIn!
That gave Dale all the energy he needed to make session 10 just as good...and a reminder that you never quite know the impact you’re having! 😊
Huge thanks to all the students at Kimberley College for bringing really positive energy into each session, and for making the 10 sessions such a brilliant start to Dale's week.
Comments