What a great morning we had here at LEWIS Towers yesterday!
This week the salesforce.com Foundation was hosting its bi-annual BizAcademy, run in conjunction with Landmark Training. We invited the 14 young people on the week-long course to come and meet us, to spend the morning learning about PR and to help them with their presentation and interview skills.
Ian Williams and I met the group with some trepidation: would they be interested in what we had to say? Would they ‘get it’? Could we be relevant to them in the same way that we are to senior businesspeople who seek our advice when preparing to speak to the media?
We didn’t need to worry. While yes, the group were incredibly young and incredibly naïve, they were also incredibly hungry. Hungry to understand what the business world is like, what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ to make the news, how companies communicate their stories and how to improve their skills. And, ultimately, how to improve their chances. These are young people who may have been let down by the normal routes to education, and who might have additional needs. They need help to gain the skills, confidence and qualifications to gain employment and become economically active citizens. Landmark is providing that – and it’s something incredibly inspiring to see.
I don’t know how much of an impact our session will have had. Maybe they’ll feel more confident in their final presentations. Maybe they’ll be inspired to think about finding a role in communications. Maybe one of them is a business leader of the future. But even if none of them felt inspired at all, I definitely was.
Whether or not these young people are the future of salesforce.com, LEWIS PR or any of the other companies involved in the week, they are the future. To see these young people, who have been given no favours, had no advantages and have been let down by traditional education, so eager to learn, to impress and to improve their chances was absolutely fantastic. I really hope they do well – not just in front of the ‘dragons’ they met today, but in whatever path they choose. On attitude alone, they deserve it, and the UK needs them in its workforce.
Tags: CSR, Graduate jobs, Landmark Training, LEWIS, LEWISPR, London, PR careers, salesforce.com
