West London Free School, Higher Education Week

Dale, should have stood on a chair?

🪑 Dale should have asked for a chair to stand on! 🤣

It was such a pleasure sharing the stage with these two guys... even if they do make Dale look a bit shorter! 😄

Dale was back at West London Free School in Hammersmith for his third visit this year, this time as part of their Higher Education Week, where the focus was all about Degree Apprenticeships.

On his left is Bailey Cooper, a former WLFS student who is now completing a Civil Engineering Degree Apprenticeship with Taylor Woodrow. On his right is Hal Toolan, another ex pupil of WLFS who is completing a Project Management Degree Apprenticeship with Amazon.

Both spoke brilliantly about their experiences. 👏👏

Hearing directly from recent alumni makes such a difference because the students can really relate to them. Their presentations were honest, engaging and full of practical advice. And it was clear to see the confidence that being in the workplace had given them.

Dale's session focused on personal branding with a focus on some things students can do over the summer to strengthen their university or Degree Apprenticeship applications. We looked at:

🔗 Building a LinkedIn profile.

👩‍💻 Completing free online courses.

🏢 Gaining work experience.

🤝 Joining relevant employer and professional organisations.

After the presentations, the students took part in mock assessment centre team exercises. It was fascinating to watch the different groups in action. One thing that really stood out was how much you could tell about a team's effectiveness just from their body language. The strongest teams looked engaged and were all leaning in.

👉 But the highlight of the day for Dale actually came before the sessions had even started.

When he arrived, he found out that two of the school's students who attended the sessions he ran earlier this year, had secured 🎓 Degree Apprenticeships. One of them had received his offer just the day before. His sister was in one of our sessions and came over to tell me that he'd asked her to pass on his thanks.

It was clear the students had all had a busy and really informative week....and Dale really enjoyed playing a small part in it.