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Gemma goes back to her high school roots

A former Cramlington High School student returned to school last week to teach 20 students the basics of her career in the classroom she studied in almost 10 years ago.

Gemma Clarke, 24, from Blyth is an account manager for Newcastle based PR consultancy O Communications. She went back to her old secondary school to demonstrate Public Relations as a promising career opportunity as part of Young Enterprise North East’s ‘Enterprise in Action’ programme.

‘Enterprise in Action’ helps students devise their own company with the guidance of local business people, which sees them creating a business plan, manufacturing a product and selling it to make a profit.

Gemma provided the students with their very own ‘PR Toolkit’, which gave them hints and tips to publicise their businesses. They were then set a series of tasks including writing a press release and devising a photo brief.

Gemma said: “Before I went into the classroom I was incredibly nervous. Seeing and hearing all the familiar sights and sounds that I experienced when I was a Cramlington High School student was very surreal, especially seeing some of my old teachers.

“When I went into the classroom it was very daunting to see over 20 students waiting for me to teach them, however once they started asking me questions and getting involved in the lesson, it gave me a great feeling of satisfaction and my nerves disappeared.”

Gemma is one of the business people from around the region that have given up ‘One Day’ to Young Enterprise North East to help raise aspirations of local young people.

For more about the One Day Campaign, visit www.onedaycampaign.org.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .