What happens in a company? Touch it with your own hands!
This Reality Check consists of a hands-on workshop held by a company within the school context, as a curricular or extra-curricular activity. The special feature of this experience is that companies not only come into the school, but also bring in equipment or materials actually used in the workplace and make them available to the students, so that they can experience first-hand what goes on in a local company.
This hands-on workshop is intended to provide young people with a practical experience in direct contact with a company, in order to acquire greater curiosity and awareness about working environments, tasks, and technological equipment involved. The practice-oriented approach is also believed to be effective in creating a clearer and more realistic picture of what goes on in the companies and clarify students’ doubts about the actual tasks, materials and technologies implied in companies’ daily work.
The idea of these workshops arises from observing that the kind of cooperation between schools and companies is usually limited to temporary internships experiences, even though the range of possibilities of cooperation is wider. Indeed, the organisation of hands-on workshops with technical equipment can be in both schools’ and companies’ interest: for the former, it represents the occasion to show students something new and uncommon in the school environment; for the latter, it is a concrete possibility of increasing students’ curiosity about their sector and of attracting new trainees, as well as an opportunity to be in contact with youngsters and discover their expectations on the labour market.
Lastly, the hands-on approach of this initiative is aimed at presenting a different, valuable learning modality to young people, making them feel real protagonists of the activity, and not just mere spectators of it.
Learning outcomes
Additional learning outcomes
- Trying out a practical working task and technological equipment.
Implementation
Step-by-step
The steps to implement this Reality Check are:
- As a school director/manager, identify some staff members/teachers to be in charge of this kind of activities inside the school, to act as reference people.
- Then, contact some companies to investigate their willingness to hold a practical workshop for a group of students (a class, or a mixed group of about 15-20 students). These workshops can be held both as curricular or extra-curricular activities (during or after school hours), depending on the school rules and agenda.
- Once a company is found and an agreement on the formalities is reached (cooperation contract, safety, insurance, etc.), set a contact exchange between the operational actors, meaning the school staff in charge for organisation and the workshop mentor(s) from the company.
- The operational actors set a date for the event and agree on the necessary requirements (duration, type of room/space needed, maximum number of participants, technical means, and so on).
- The school communicates to the students the details of the initiative (and collects enrolments, if necessary).
- The school appoints the needed surveillance and technical staff to be present on that day.
- On the workshop day, the designated room must be prepared, and the company mentor(s) and students should be welcomed by a teacher or a school staff when they arrive.
- The workshop should include a short presentation and theoretical part at the beginning, and then focus on hands-on activities involving the students directly and actively.
- In the final part of the workshop, dedicate some time to open questions and discussion.
- At the end of the workshop, ask the students to evaluate it through a questionnaire.
Involved professions
For the first organisational part of this Reality Check, administrative staff of the school hosting the workshop must get in contact with the administrative staff of the company participating into it. The companies involved should ideally be the ones using special, advanced, or state-of-the-art equipment or technology to be shown to young people.
After an agreement between the parts is found, the operational actors come into play: the employee(s) holding the workshop and the teacher(s) in charge of its development get in contact and plan the steps for implementation together.
Finally, during the workshop some additional school staff might be needed for surveillance (depending on the school’s rules), such as a custodian opening/closing rooms and a technician for technical support.
Preparation & follow-up
In the preparation phase of this Reality Check, it is necessary to identify the actors to involve, both inside and outside of the school. Inside of the school, reliable reference people should be designated and given explanations on the principles of these kinds of activity. On the company side, ideally the companies to involve should have some specific characteristics related to innovative processes or technologies used. For instance, they could be involving special or advanced technological equipment in their work, so as to show young people state-of-the-art production processes and means.
From the school side, the follow-up activity to this Reality Check would consist of supporting the participants and the companies to keep in contact between them if there is any willingness to do so. In time, the school should find a practical, effective way to build direct relations between motivated students and companies.
Evaluation
This Reality Check can be evaluated using an online questionnaire. The participants receive the evaluation questionnaire at the end of the workshop, investigating the quality of the idea, structure, duration, contents, implementation of the Reality Check and possible adjustments or new suggestions. This questionnaire should also investigate participants’ feelings and impressions during and after the experience, to understand the quality and impact of it.