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Business in the Community (BITC) today announced that LSI Architects LLP has been selected from almost 40 entries to be recognised with a ‘Highly Commended’ award for providing an inspiring and robust work experience placement programme to young people in the region. LSI is the only Norwich based organisation to have been awarded this accolade. In addition, Maersk Line UK and Wates Construction have also been recognised in the East of England region.
LSI Architects is an award-winning practice of 50 architects, technologists and support staff working from offices in London and Norwich. LSI is respected for its work on multi-million pound projects for government agencies, NHS Trusts, and for global companies, such as Aviva.
LSI offers one-week work-placements to a minimum of five students at different times throughout the year. The student is assigned a mentor and undertakes a simple design project in response to a specific brief. The project serves as a learning-vehicle in relation to the technologies associated both with the construction of buildings and with the software and non-digital techniques used in communicating design ideas. In addition to providing a means of identifying and developing the most promising recruits for the future, the presence of work placement students makes the organisation more self-conscious about their practice, both as a workplace and its processes. Above all, mentoring the young people boosts the self-confidence of their more junior staff, enabling them to develop their communication skills and giving them a first taste of responsibility.
As a result of the programme they point students in an appropriate career direction, contribute to the pool of well motivated and informed recruits to the sector locally, and reinforce their relationship with local community organisations.
Sarah Gibb, National Campaign Manager said, “We are delighted with the response we have received from all the entrants, which proves that there are many businesses out there already making a big difference by offering inspiring work placements that will ultimately have an impact on a young person’s career decisions. However, we know that employers have more to do to bridge the gap between the classroom and the world of work if British business is to find the talent, creativity and skills needed for our future”.
To become a Work inspiration employer log onto www.workinspiration.com.
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For more information please contact Linda Considine on 07502 372 774 or linda.considine@yahoo.co.uk
Notes to editors
• The new Business in the Community Regional Work Inspiration Award was launched alongside the national Awards for Excellence at the Business in the Community AGM in December 2009
• Almost 40 entries were received and judged by a panel which included representatives from Accenture, Affinity Sutton, BT, Credit Suisse, DLA Piper, Edge Learner Forum, Nationwide Building Society and Reed in Partnership
• What is the difference between a regional Award for Excellence and our national Awards for Excellence?
• To find the best examples of each, entries to the Regional Work Inspiration Award will be assessed against the other entries in each English region, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
• As a Regional Award for Excellence its function is to provide a means to select the best examples in a particular region. Therefore companies who are successful in this category are considered to be one of the best examples in that region
• Successful entries in this Regional Award are not awarded a Big Tick. A Business in the Community’s Big Tick is only awarded to a company whose entry has competed in a national Award for Excellence category and has achieved a (national) standard set by the assessors that year that demonstrates significant impact across that category’s criteria that has been backed up with evidence of the impact they are having. It is intended to develop this award category into an Award for Excellence in 2011
• Work Inspiration is one of four awards in 2010 that focus on a key component of our talent agenda. The other three include Education, Employability and Skills in the Workplace. For more information on the Work Inspiration Campaign please visit www.workinspiration.com.
Background to the Work Inspiration campaign
Business in the Community has spent 18 months researching senior business leaders’ ideas on how to tackle the skills and talent deficit in the UK.
One of the key issues identified through Business in the Community’s Talent Debates, attended by 2,000 business leaders in 2008-2009, was the gap between young people’s expectations of the world of work and what business expected from those new recruits.
There is also a knowledge gap between the world of work and young people: young people are leaving education with little understanding of how to progress with a career; the range of jobs and opportunities available for them; and how to make their first steps in the world of work.
This gap poses a critical issue to business: if young people don’t know what jobs are out there and how to get into them, this could lead to a serious lack of applicant and/or appropriately skilled applicants in future. By raising awareness among the corporate sector, we will use businesses as a catalyst for positive change to the way work experience is provided for young people.
The gap also highlights a critical social need to better equip young people with a more transparent and inspirational picture of the world of work, so that they are better able to make decisions about their future career paths on leaving school or university.
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