After showcasing careers on e.TV for seven weeks and awarding bursaries totaling more than 100 000, the next phase of Boston City Campus Experience It! campaign is firmly on track.
Experience It! is a project of Boston that aims at giving young people the opportunity to test drive careers of their choice. The first phase of Experience It! involved a weekly television show targeted at school leavers. Learners could go to the Experience It! mobisite, register their details, and indicate which career path they saw themselves following.
Names were then drawn at random and he lucky learners whose names were drawn, joined Experience It! show host, Bonita G.
Together with her, learners visited various companies and got the chance to ask all the important questions about their envisaged career choices, and spend time with people already in the profession to see what they may be letting themselves in for.
Learners that decided that their choice was perfect fit, received a bursary from Boston to study towards their qualification. “We have poured a considerable amount of resources into Experience It! to make sure it works,” says Natalie Rabson of Boston City Campus and Business College. “We have employed permanent staff to manage the whole project, liaise with companies, learners and branch principals, and we are dedicated to making sure that both our students and corporate partners get what they wish for out of experience.”
The next phase of Experience It! will see Boston students spending a day during their winter holidays job shadowing business leaders and professionals. For students this means they can learn not only what happens in that industry or profession on a day-to-day basis, but also hopefully they will be inspired and motivated by the success of the particular mentor that they have the privilege of job shadowing.
So far Boston has had a good response from companies such as Emperor’s Palace, Rectron (IT Company), Callforce, The Star and the Argus newspapers.
MoB (digital marketing) and Ernst and Young (one of the largest accounting firms in SA), 1Time airlines, Comair Airlines and Bidvest Bank are among the companies that have all signed on as partners to the Experience It! initiative. “However, the more mentors available, the merrier the students will be as they will be able to widen their network of available mentors,” Rabson points out.
“We invite anyone who is interested in mentoring a student in his or her field of work to contact us. “We need mentors across as many industries and job categories as possible to host our students for a job shadowing day or two. “Participating companies will benefit from Boston’s print, radio and TV campaigns and receive media exposure for their involvement as Experience It! enjoys recognition from Lead SA initiative.
Job shadowing benefits both students and mentors, she points out. Students get to find out more about their chosen career, have a chance to confirm that they have indeed made the right choice and get some exposure to the world of work.
“It’s dream come true for many students because they are well aware of the fact that it’s easier to find employment when you have a good qualification coupled with a good understanding of what employers want,” Rabson points out. Belinda Madilonga who has been selected as a Boston spokesperson for the Experience It! campaign says that most young people realize the importance of job shadowing, but it is often difficult for them to arrange job shadowing opportunities.
She is currently studying towards a Conveyancing Secretary qualification at Boston Bedfordview campus and sees herself working in the legal industry.
“I was approached by Boston staff after registering for this year, and was told all about Experience It! programme,”she says. “They asked me whether I wanted to investigate if what I am studying will be right for me, and I said yes, of course. “I haven’t done my job shadowing yet, but I know that if I find that I don’t like legal work, I will be able to change my subject choices o set me on different secretarial path. And that is what is so great about Experience It! programme.”
For more information or to participate in Experience It!, visit ExperienceIt! or www.boston.co.za.
Students that apply for admission at Boston City Campus & Business College will get a response to their applications within two working days. And those that apply long in advance for their 2016 studie…
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