College News

Getting down to business

Over 50 students from QE experienced the world of work by participating in the “Your Life Your Career” event at Business Central in Darlington. The worlds of Education and Business were brought together with the students being supported by colleagues from Darlington Building Society and the Centre for Process Innovation.

Mentors with a wealth of expertise from many different sectors were able to inspire students and to explore with them their career aspirations.

Guest speakers included Colin Fyfe, CEO of Darlington Building Society, Jonathan Hutchinson, Business Planner from Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Lilla Preston, Special Projects Manager from North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC).  Employers shared their own unique career journeys, talked about the many different career opportunities and about how to develop employability skills along the way.

Students were able to take part in a number of lively and interactive activities ending with a speed networking session where they had the chance to ask the business mentors questions about their roles, routes and organisations.

Vanessa Woods the Centre Manager at Business Central comments, ‘It was great to work alongside QE to be able to offer support to some of the local students. All the mentors gave up their time to encourage students to widen their career perspectives and to realise that there are many more exciting job choices open to them than they first thought’.

Student Stephen Noakes adds, “I enjoyed my time at Business Central. The activities with the business mentors were interactive and helped to give a bigger insight into the life of work. Overall it was a fun and informative experience, and I would gladly do again.”