C2C – Communication to Careers

If a secondary school leaver had the opportunity to meet and talk with around 20 local business people would you allow it or ignore it? I attended a meeting last week where I heard the reluctance of some local high schools to take up such an opportunity. I was stunned by the comment, especially since I had participated in 2 such opportunities and from the feedback on the day thought it to be extremely valuable for the students who attended. But what tangible outcomes will be achieved, will the students meet employers who may offer them the jobs they are seeking, who will be the business representatives attending, will the students get the right information; that’s what some schools apparently want answered before considering the opportunity. Flabbergasted I thought common sense would realise what a valuable opportunity being offered. Here’s a generation that is stereotyped as having limited face to face communication skills with the opportunity to trial/develop/highlight their proficiency with business people giving freely of their time; and documentation is required as to what tangible outcomes will be derived and information shared. Not easy to prove, without a time consuming (and costly) survey, but I would deduce that the students who do participate may find a future job interview with a person they hadn’t met less daunting and being more confident have a better chance of success. C2C, Communication to Careers is what the opportunity is called. It’s an initiative of Rockhampton Innovative Networking Group (RING). In simple terms its speed meetings, the business people who volunteer their time form an inner ring, the students an outer, they chat for a couple of minutes then move to the next. Is the simplicity of the process the issue with these schools? Does it matter who they meet, variety is surely a benefit. Maybe the students do get different information on the structure of their resume, but isn’t it better for students to hear direct from employers and realise the textbook may not have all the answers. C2C should be nationwide; maybe the process can be improved, but not choked with bureaucratic demands. Can communication channels with more schools be more open to make C2C available to more students?