Championing young people has always been important part of Astro’s culture, and our long-running apprenticeship scheme has seen many youngsters join us and stay with us for many years, moving up through the business and becoming key members of the team. But we wanted to do more, and several years ago began offering work experience placements for school children.
As a result of this we are delighted to announce that we have received Education Business Partnership ‘Outstanding Employer Contribution Award’ in recognition of exception support in assisting the young people of Kent through work experience.
Coming from local schools, we take two or three youngsters a year – most have a keen interest in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) subjects. Our work experience programme sees them joining us for one or two weeks; they will spend time in each of our departments, with the majority being spend on the support desk so they get fully immersed in the frontline work and see how customer challenges and issues are resolved.
One of our recent work experience youngsters, Ollie Newman, spent 2 weeks with us in the summer of 2018 and enjoyed it so much he came back at Christmas. Ollie made such an positive impression on management team that we were delighted to offer him full time, permanent role with us as soon as he had finished his GCSE’s. Ollie has settled in really well and is now being supported we look forward to seeing him grow and develop in his role as Service Desk Apprentice where he is also going to undertake further education on the ITP Apprentice Scheme.
Education Business Partnership says, “Work Experience is a powerful personal development activity for a young person that is often a critical part of their preparation for employment. Work Experience is a key element in a young person’s development resulting in increased self-confidence, increased maturity, a positive attitude to world of work and a better understanding of future career opportunities & employer’s expectations.”