A work experience review from our guest blogger, Arthur Fane, 17:

Last summer I was lucky enough to be accepted for work experience at Golf Monthly magazine, which I have a subscription to.  The whole process of obtaining the placement was rather difficult - I ended up sending letters to eight different companies and Golf Monthly were the only one that responded. This goes to show what a fantastic service WEXO offers, as all the companies on the site are ready and waiting for applications!

When Golf Monthly responded positively to my letter, I secretly worried that I would just be making tea and re-reading old magazines.  How wrong could I have been?!

 
On my arrival they explained all about how they publish the magazine and they then set me various interesting tasks including writing online articles, researching golf abroad (a regular section of the magazine) and choosing pictures to go on the website.

 
Not only was it great fun doing work experience at Golf Monthly, but it will also look fantastic on my CV and prove to future employers that I’ve been interested in writing since school and am determined enough to have already tried it out in the real world.  I hope that one day this head start will help me get my dream job in the fast-paced world of journalism.

by Arthur Fane (arthurfane1@hotmail.co.uk)

If you would like your work experience or internship review to be featured in the WEXO Blog, simply email 200-300 words (plus image/video) to info@wexo.co.uk

It’s been a big week on the graduate prospects news front. On the downside, we’ve seen that unemployment has hit record highs of 2.38m (7.2%) – this in the wake of a study claiming that one in four graduate vacancies have completely disappeared (where did they go?). More encouragingly, there have been reports appearing on both public and private initiatives to address these concerns. Not least of these was WEXO’s debut on BBC Television News above! But this was closely followed by Alan Milburn announcing the long awaited Social Mobility Report and the launch of Boris Johnson’s new website Helping Graduates into Work – both on Tuesday – uncanny coincidence?!

Some time ago, WEXO actually went to see the ‘Panel for Fair Access to the Professions’ which compiled the social mobility report at Cabinet Office. They never thanked us for our time and haven’t credited us in the publication. We do realise though that they’ve been busy. The report is reasonably impartial in its observations and bold in its recommendations. But the very term ‘social mobility’ is starting to sound both pretentious and utopian and the ultimate blame for the report’s existence is probably the failure of Labour educational reform (even in a boom economy) to remove the seeds of immobility that start in the playground. If this is going to be any more than a footnote to the Labour party’s last stand then it’s the doors of access that need to be opened (and not just talked about). This is exactly what we are trying to do. In promoting WEXO as ‘it’s not who you know, but who you are’ we are trying to prove that some opportunities might be better filled with big brains (what you know) but many others are better populated with bolder thinking or broader approaches.

Bold and broad are both words that could be used to describe Boris. And the new London-focused initiative (in partnership with our friends The Careers Group) is proactive in highlighting the benefits of internships. The Mayor has stated that he will promote good practice and support it with public sector investment. We like the sound of this and have written to Boris accordingly (apparently he responds within 20 days). The website is largely a pooling of information and ideas to help graduates work out what exactly they want to do and enticingly what exactly they might get paid given a certain degree. Check it out: www.london.gov.uk/graduates

By the time the WEXO Summer Fête had kicked off at three o’clock, the cloisters were lined with students chattering to exhibitors as they put the finishing touches to their stalls.  Kids Company, The Write Stuff, Inspire, Future Prospect, STA Travel, TLC Events, Raleigh International and Base Camp were there to help students improve their CVs, plan worthwhile gap years and summer holidays and decide what career path to follow, while the company reps (from graphic designers, journalists and PR people to a reinsurance broker and a pilot!) came to pass on insider information about how to get a foot on their career ladder and what they look for in an employee.  The WEXO team spent the afternoon attempting to match up students to interesting companies, giving each the chance to offer or find a work experience placement or an internship.

Later on in the afternoon after Robin Kennedy, our CEO, officially opened the event, Al Gosling (Extreme Group) and Camila Batmanghelidjh (Kids Company) took centre stage to talk about what motivated them to start up their companies, how they managed it and what they’re up to at the moment – inspiring a flurry of questions at the end from intrigued visitors.

Camila Batmanghelidjh speaking about starting up Kids Company

There were some very exciting fête games on offer all day, including Pinpoint the Mystery Location from STA Travel and Pin the Heart on the Person from Kids Company – and, of course, WEXO’s Guess How Many Sweets in the Jar, whose winner (the lovely Chantel) walked away with 1,076 smarties.  At 6pm, as visitors chatted in the cloisters, passing on and receiving advice with Pimm’s in one hand and popcorn in the other, Mano de Dios stole the spotlight and really got the party started.

The sale of our raffle tickets raised a grand total of £261 for Kids Company, so thank you very much to all who donated and congratulations to the prize winners! 

P.S.  If you missed the chance to donate, please visit www.kidsco.org.uk/donate to support their fantastic work.

We’ve all heard of the exploits of Tom Daly and the British Olympic hopefuls over the past year but it’s time for them to step aside as, on the 20^th June, a great British Champion came out of retirement at the age of 60 to recreate dives that would drive even Daly green with envy!

Phil Drew, former British No.1 and father of our devoted web developer Ben, performed 5 of his competition dives from 30+ years ago to rounds of rapturous applause on behalf of The Primrose Hospice.  The Hospice and Cancer Help Centre is an independent charity, offering advice and support to cancer patients and their families in the North Worcestershire area, and Phil has already raised over £4,750 of his £5,000 target.  To show your support and help Phil reach that target you can donate by logging onto http://www.justgiving.com/phildrew1.

To view the dives, as well as the well kept Mr. Drew in some rather restrictive Speedos, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCTfFnrAwKg.  I’m sure you’ll all agree that this was a fantastic achievement for a commendable cause and a feat we all wish we were fit enough to repeat!

Let’s see if we can coax him out for 2012!