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Europa Gears Up the Next Generation for Career Success

Staff from our Heathrow and Dartford sites gave over 200 students a taste of real working life recently, as members of the team took part in a ‘mock interview’ day at a London secondary school.

The event, held at Lampton School in Hounslow, saw three members of the Europa team interview 238 Year 10 students aged 14-15 to help develop their presentation, organisation and communication skills through interaction with real business people. Heathrow Branch Manager, Nick Robertson, National Airfreight Manager, Andy Serpant and Internal Recruitment & Acquisition Manager, Mark Chopping put the pupils through their paces with real-life style job interviews.

As well as Europa, The Royal Mail, BP, The Rotary Club and BJMW Recruitment also took part in the day, providing a broad spectrum of interview experience for the candidates. This was the first time Lampton School has held a careers event on this scale, which was designed to provide students with the vital skills and confidence needed to break into today’s job market.

Alistair Hind, Head of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) and Careers at Lampton School, said the event was a brilliant way to build upon the key skills the students had learnt in lessons throughout the year.

He said: “Work experience and contact with employers is essential to the success of pupils once they leave school. We find that on average, a pupil who has contact with at least five employers is more likely to secure a quality apprenticeship, College Course or University Placement. Many employers have mentioned to us over the years that they would be happy to employ more young people, but due to lack of interview practice young people often don’t succeed at interviews.

“This event was designed to help solve this problem and give our students the best possible head start for their future careers. It was a huge success and gave the children a brilliant insight into the corporate world. Europa is a rapidly growing global company, which champions and nurtures young talent to develop prosperous careers in logistics, so was the perfect fit for our event. We would like to thank all of the businesses who took part and hope to continue this success at the event for next year’s Year 10 students.”

Simran, a Year 10 student who took part in the mock interviews, said: “This was an amazing opportunity and a great chance to practice our interview skills for the future.” And Keeya, also from Year 10, said the event was: “a useful, rewarding experience that will definitely benefit us all over the next few years.”

The all-day event saw Nick, Andy and Mark interview pupils for 15 minutes, before completing a feedback form on their performance. Students each brought their CV and portfolio, which they had been working on during their PSHE and Careers sessions throughout the academic year.

Nick Robertson is Branch Manager at Europa’s Heathrow branch, which is one of the company’s 11 road freight sites, as well as its base for its air freight operations.

He said: “It was a privilege to be invited to Lampton School alongside some of the country’s leading businesses. At Europa, we champion apprenticeships and internal development, helping our younger employees to build a successful career by gaining valuable experience and qualifications on the job. The logistics sector is booming and we’re always on the look out for sparky school-leavers to join our successful team.

“We hope the experience was rewarding for the pupils and a valuable insight into the real world of work. It was brilliant to meet so many promising characters and we look forward to hopefully seeing some of the students pass through our doors in the future to begin their careers.”

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