"Cornflakes and careers"

Travis Perkins organises a 2-to-3 hour morning workshop with students, which looks at CV writing skills, interview best practice and introducing students to the idea of assessment centres. These workshops give students insight into the kinds of activities they may face.

Before launching new 'early careers' initiatives within businesses, Travis Perkins hold focus groups with students from a local school. They use these to get student's thoughts on how well they think new ideas will land. Their most recent focus group looked at a gamification app that was created to build brand awareness. The feedback from the session was 'brilliant'. For the students, they benefited from being able to put on their CV that they helped a large company to develop an app.

In one school, the company worked with the design and technology teacher to host a competition. The challenge was to design a wall covering for the classroom. Teams worked together to develop their ideas and presented them back to Travis Perkins in-house design agency to see their plans made into reality.

"Travis Perkins is a large employer so we have a duty to help the communities we operate in. What we do very much looks to the long-term gain, building brand awareness and thinking about the future benefit of young people knowing more about our business and what we can offer in employment and career prospects." 
- Verity Williams, Early Careers Manager, Travis Perkins