Doing Career WorkOut was inspiring. It made me fall in love again with my job.

Worktree’s Career WorkOut sessions are a really great opportunity for the police to engage with the young people of Milton Keynes. Hopefully we can bust some of the myths and at the same time we learn so much from the participants.

I have attended a number of events where volunteers interact with school students. When I was at the BBC I helped drive the annual BBC News School Report day. And I have been involved with Robert Peston’s “Speakers for Schools” and also Founders4Schools. All of these groups do excellent work trying to inspire large numbers of young people into believing in themselves.

My colleague and I attended Walton High School for a Career WorkOut session. We both found it a great way of interacting with the children whilst also promoting the Civil Service and explaining the reason behind why we all need to pay our taxes.

I’m proud that NHBC sponsor Worktree by promoting the work they do and by encouraging staff across the business to attend career workout sessions across schools in MK. I tend to participate on my day off and try to attend at least once a term. Not only do I find it very rewarding, but it also builds my confidence knowing that I am helping to give something back in my community.

By promoting the work we do in the police we want to enforce that you don’t just have to be in uniform racing around on blue lights, but there are many roles civilian and officer that cab be fulfilled. Each of the puzzle pieces making up one big organisation that works together. By planting seeds in the young people’s minds may just determine what life path they choose.

The questions the young people asked really made me think about how far I have come to date with my career and where the future could take me.

This was an amazing event for my motivation.

It was a pleasure to meet and talk with so many Year 10 students. They asked a variety of interesting and thoughtful questions and I hope I was able to give them some ideas.

I was striking a few conversations up with students about what their dream job was (as I am fortunate to do mine for a living) and I was shocked by how many of them were worried that they hadn’t decided what they wanted to do. They’re only 14/15 and seem to have a large amount of pressure on them to have a goal of what they want to get out of their lives.

I felt valued in my role and the session caused me to think about how much I appreciated my team and the great people I worked with every day.

I had the privilege of being part of Worktree’s “Career WorkOut ” today. Worktree are a fantastic organisation delivering a number of projects across the MK region designed to introduce every young person to 50 guests from the world of work, something that has proven to have a big impact on their employability.

One of the questions I was asked was “What is the difference between employing young and more mature employees and how do I handle it?”. This was a really sensible and well thought out question which no-one has asked before.

The Hazeley Academy students were interesting and interested. Thank you for letting me come and talk to them.

WorkOut is a very worthwhile, rewarding experience. The students ask some very thought-provoking questions which are a stark reminder of what it was like to be at School with such passionate ideas about the future. I wish that I had been offered a similar opportunity when I was at School.

Career WorkOut events are extremely well organised and so rewarding for all involved. You see the young people grow in confidence and challenge themselves further during the session. It’s great to be able to answer their questions, share my experience and show that my own career route wasn’t clear cut.

I always enjoy the WorkOut sessions; the questions are interesting and I suspect I learn as much as the students!

I would send Worktree into every secondary school in the country!

I found the WorkOut session to be very positive for myself and I also feel the students learnt a lot by the way the groups improved in their questions and confidence.

Taking part in WorkOut is the best hour I ever spend in my working life.

I was greatly impressed with the confidence and interest of the students and their use of follow up questions. I hope when they come to their first job interview they can come across as well as they did today.

The WorkOut session was great fun. I loved talking to the kids, so enthusiastic.

It’s wonderfully refreshing to put myself back in the innocent mind of a child – lots of laughter.

It was a definite eye opener for me into how today’s 14 year olds think. I was left with a very positive impression of the students.

I’m quite new to this kind of work in schools and wasn’t sure how the pupils would react. It’s been very enjoyable…and good to know that my NHBC sponsors Worktree to make this happen.

I learned a lot about my job! I was also interested in the students’ attitudes and it was a better impression than I was expecting.

What’s great about WorkOut for our staff who participate is how energising it is. That’s one reason we’re happy to sponsor this.

Activities like this create so much enthusiasm and creativity and are vital for young people preparing for work.

I learnt a lot from the students and the event helped me reflect on what I’ve done and where I am now.

I just wanted to say, that I absolutely enjoy volunteering and doing the worktree sessions at the schools.  The virtual ones are fantastic.  I cannot wait to sign up for more.