Following our successful Classroom to Boardroom programme in July, one of our Year 11 students was given a work experience opportunity at LEYF Nurseries. Read Juliette’s experience below.
I worked with LEYF for three days and overall, I think it went very well because I was given several different tasks to do, and they really got me involved. I did gain a sense of the impact Classroom to Boardroom had: for example, they were working more on their Facebook page and trying to keep it more active, as we’d suggested; they were thinking of advertising LEYF job availabilities on local buses, which is something else we had encouraged them to do; and they were analysing some of their competitor nurseries. So I would say they are already implementing several things we mentioned in Classroom to Boardroom.
During my work experience, I wrote two articles for LEYF’s ‘Ideas for Parents’ page on their website; I filled in an Excel spreadsheet, writing down which LEYF nurseries were covered by which bus depots, choosing the three depots which I thought would cover the greatest number of nurseries; I did some local borough research by calling some of LEYF’s nurseries, acting like a parent, to ask them what their fees were and to ask whether they offered the 30 hours free entitlement.
I think it was a very valuable experience because it gave me a very good sense of what a job in marketing might be like. It helped me to improve my telephone manner, and I got to practise writing ‘real-life’ articles, which I had never done before. I enjoyed all the tasks that I was given because they were real tasks that LEYF employees had to do. The tasks were also very diverse and allowed me to develop a range of skills (IT, communication and problem-solving).
I think one thing I would say to people considering the placement is that you are given quite a lot of independence and you’ve got to be ready to do some genuine marketing work (not just fetching coffee!).
Juliette Imbert, L6
