BT is offering free work placements to help young people in the North East get ‘work ready’ and prepared for their future careers.
The three week course, combining hands-on work experience with coaching and training is open to anyone aged 16 to 24 not currently in education, employment or training.
Work placements are a great opportunity for people to build confidence and learn practical work skills such as CV writing and interview techniques. Although the course does not carry a formal qualification, attendees are given a certificate showing their attendance and achievements to demonstrate their commitment to prospective employers.
The next North East course, at the BT offices on Harton Quay in South Shields, will start on August 3, 2017. For more details or to apply visit www.bt.com/workready.
The first week of the course is mainly office based and focuses on building and developing practical work skills. This is followed by a week ‘on the job’, shadowing employees and getting hands on experience of the working day.
In South Shields this will be an opportunity to work alongside engineers from Openreach, the local network business, which is part of BT Group, as they build and maintain millions of miles of fibre and copper cables that connect every home and business in the UK to local telephone exchanges.
The final days of the work placement are spent doing mock interviews and a day assessment as well as developing an individual plan of the next steps to find employment or return to education.
Farooq Hakim, chair of BT’s North East regional board, said: “BT work placements give local, young people the opportunity to experience the working day and gain invaluable insight of what is expected in the workplace.
“There will be more opportunities to join a work placement in the North East so even if you can’t attend these particular courses I’d encourage you to register your interest to make sure you don’t miss out.”
BT work placements are part of the BT Work Ready programme which is a series of initiatives provided to help young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, gain employment skills and get them ready for work. It’s part of BT’s commitment as a founding partner in the Movement to Work coalition of employers.**
Further information on BT’s Work Ready programme – www.bt.com/workready