Partner Article

Oasis Academy students experience vital employability skills with local businesses

Year 7 and 8 students at Oasis Academy in Brightstowe are one step closer to a successful career thanks to a day spent with local businesses where they were given hands-on experience of valuable employability skills.

The ‘BRIGHT Day’, which took place earlier this month, has been run by professional services firm KPMG for the past four years. This year pupils were treated to fun workshops based around problem solving and innovation, as well as teamwork and enterprise skills.

Colleagues from KPMG in Bristol took a day out of the office to share their vital skills with the pupils. They were joined by employees from local law firm Womble Bond Dickinson, and Nisbets.

Year 7s worked on number and word puzzles, and used their imaginations to create an invention. This tested teamwork skills and resilience, as well as presentation skills. Year 8s learnt to follow a client brief, so that the newspaper ‘giraffes’ they created were to the client’s exact specification. They moved on to create a ‘roller coaster’ for presentation to investors, which taught the pupils marketing and project management skills. KPMG presented prizes to the successful teams and those students who demonstrated skills such as leadership, resilience, team-working and problem solving.

Teresa Fisk, partner with KPMG in Bristol and local lead for Corporate Social Responsibility, said: “The BRIGHT days are really important in our drive to increasing social mobility and raising aspirations among young people. It’s a way of giving young people skills that they can build on throughout school. By giving them knowledge of what employers are looking for and giving them the opportunity to experience the challenges that we face in the workplace, they are already one step ahead.

“We really enjoyed ourselves; it’s so rewarding to see the energy and enthusiasm that the pupils throw at the challenges.”

Joe Docherty, Principal at Oasis Academy Brightstowe, said: “This is the fourth year we have run BRIGHT Day here at the academy and the event continues to go from strength to strength. It is a real privilege for our students to be able to gain valuable insights from such a prestigious group of local employers into some of the key skills they will require in the years to come – namely leadership, resilience, team-working and problem solving.”

BRIGHT Days form part of a wider programme of activity undertaken by KPMG with the school, that also includes mentoring students, mock interview days and ‘Dragons Den’-style enterprise competitions, as well as participation in careers fairs and sessions with business leaders encouraging young people to register to vote. KPMG colleagues are given 42 hours a year by the firm to volunteer for local causes.

Ewen Macgregor, Legal Director at Womble Bond Dickinson, commented on the day: “We have a long-standing relationship with Oasis Academy Brightstowe, having supported them and the pupils for the past five years. We’re delighted to be working collaboratively once again for the ‘BRIGHT Day’ with KPMG and Nisbets, helping pupils identify their own strengths and have a better understanding about future career direction and what expectations employers have.”

Zoe Joyner, Head of Engagement at Nisbets, added: “We have worked closely with Oasis Academy Brightstowe for a number of years, and really enjoyed joining KPMG and Womble Bond Dickinson again for the BRIGHT Day.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Womble Bond Dickinson .