Remote work shadowing is a huge success

Three Sixth Form girls were able to take part in the DH LINKS Innovation Programme remotely thanks to the forward thinking of Kings Tutors, London.

3 August 2020

 

Every year, girls at Downe House have the chance to apply to for work shadowing and placements around the world through the DH LINKS Innovation Programme, which links girls with invaluable opportunities offered by members of our alumnae and parent communities. This year, due to Covid-19, the Innovation Programme was temporarily put on hold and instead the focus shifted to a series of online Insight events which saw alumnae in different professions from across the world sharing their expertise and career journeys.

This all changed when Emily Sweerts de Landas (Jack DH 2008), Founder of Kings Tutors, approached DH LINKS with a generous offer of remote work shadowing placements for three girls; the successful candidates would work remotely from their own homes.

With the application and interview process already completed earlier in the year, the DH LINKS team were quickly able to identify three strong Sixth Form candidates who they believed would be a good ‘match’ for Kings Tutors and connected Emily with the three girls – Lucy, Jemima and Chloe.

The girls all successfully completed the work shadowing from their homes; Lucy was in Hong Kong, Jemima in Cornwall and Chloe in London. During their time at Kings Tutors, they were tasked with writing and marketing work, as well as creating a promotional video for social media.

Sixth Form student Chloe summarised her experience:

“Spending two weeks helping the Marketing Department at Kings Tutors was an amazing opportunity to learn new skills, gain insight into a working environment and learn about the world of education – all in the middle of a pandemic! A particular focus of the placement was to write articles that had a specific educational focus; this allowed me to really understand a parent’s perspective on education, something I had not considered as much before. So many opportunities have been put on hold due to Covid-19 and so to have the chance to participate in this work experience was made even more special.”

Thanks to the careful planning and innovation of Emily and Kings Tutors, the girls had a really meaningful and positive work placement experience despite the challenges of current circumstances.

We were delighted to hear from Emily:

“This is just to say thank you very much for putting us in touch with Jemima, Chloe and Lucy. We loved having them as part of our team and I have sent references to all of them; they certainly went above and beyond with their efforts. We would love to work with any Downe House alumnae who have an interest in writing and marketing if the opportunity ever arises again online or in our office!”

Emily and the Kings Tutors team have demonstrated that virtual work experience is not only possible but can be extremely valuable with the right planning and enough enthusiasm. It has inspired us to think about how we can expand our work shadowing programme in the future.

Check out the girls’ video for Kings Tutors here:

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