The workshops are designed to provide you with information about our resources, but primarily to give you personal development opportunities. The workshops are a great way to meet other volunteers, to see what volunteering opportunities are available and to develop new skills that will help you both as a volunteer and back in the workplace.

The dates for your diaries are:

21st & 22nd November 2008 in south Manchester, or 27th & 28th February 2009 in Swindon.

We’ll give you more detailed information on the workshop content when we send you a personal invite in early September.

Melanie said “The whole day was a great success from our point of view. We were able to gain business benefit by increasing awareness about hoax calls and to help students understand that it’s OK to say ‘no’. In addition we experienced really effective development and team building. We hope to exploit this aspect further when we provide Communications skills for young citizens to the new YR 7 groups in the September term. We are also planning to support the school with e-mentoring and Interviewing skills – we expect to use the model developed here as a basis for roll out in the rest of Operator Services. Watch this space!”

The Head Teacher, Peter Hamer said “It was a really powerful way of engaging the students, who responded with enthusiasm and interest. This sort of exposure to real life issues in a way that treats adult subjects in an adult way is really effective. We are looking forward to our future collaboration with BT.”

The following article is appearing in the BT Today on line magazine.

Now read on………………………..

Classroom first for managers

Pupils at a Derbyshire school were taught all about hoax 999 calls when they were visited for the day by members of the operator service centre management team.

The team members have all become BT Volunteers - and the event at Kirk Hallam Community Technology College in Ilkeston was their first time in the classroom.

Head of operator services, Melanie Spencer, was joined by centre managers Geoff Hickman from Nottingham, Hayley Tuplin from Blackburn, Lesley Morgan from Newport and Bangor, and managers Brian Henderson and Kara McGovern from Glasgow, Tim Harding from Nottingham and Sue Williams from Newport.

They showed the students a DVD outlining the consequences of making a hoax 999 call and led a class discussion on the correct use of the 999 service.

Geoff said: “It was a very successful event that gave us the chance to give pupils the benefit of our experience with the 999 service.

“We now aim to take things forward by involving all first-line managers at each of the operator services sites, with plans for managers to become e-mentors for school pupils and to run a series of lessons on communications skills and preparation for working life.”

Running a full day event for pupils in year 11, the day was based on the popular TV series Dragons’ Den and was a one day challenge event for four teams of six pupils. Objectives of the event were to:

Promote speaking, listening & presentation skills. Encourage practical team working. Provide an insight into future technology development . Develop business skills

The day started with a team building game to get the groups thinking and working together. Each team was then presented with one of the following challenges:

Techno Classroom - a virtual classroom of the future allowing remote collaboration. A Supermarket Trolley - the active uses to which it might be put Multipurpose Handheld device - meeting the needs of a 14-16 year old customer. A Chips on the Road facility/device - active road and the potential benefits.

Initially the teams had two brainstorming sessions following which they presented their thoughts to the ‘Dragons’ – two BT Volunteers, the Support Team member and an external member of the local Education Business Partnership.

They then had to develop a business plan from their ideas based on the 4Ps of marketing which they again presented to the Dragons, receiving appropriate feedback on:

How well the teams worked together. The quality of their presentations. Strength of their business case based on the 4Ps

The ‘Dragons’ observed the teams working, as in The Apprentice, and challenged the teams’ presentations, as in Dragons’ Den, always in a manner aimed at helping the students improve their skills in many of the areas necessary if they are to make headway in life. Encouragement was the watchword for the day. At the end, there was a winning team and following the prize giving, everyone agreed, a great day had been had by all.

If anyone would like further information about the event, perhaps with a view to designing something similar for your local secondary school, please contact your support team member.