The schools:
We were joined by teams from three schools, Hannah More Primary, Hawkesbury Primary and Filton Avenue Primary School, who are all keen to develop a set of eight Essential Skills in their students. Today’s trip was a fantastic opportunity for a select group of Year 5 students from each school to compete and put their Listening Carefully, Sharing Ideas and Problem Solving skills to the test outside the classroom, with the support from professional business volunteers.
The business:
Cabot Circus is a major shopping centre in Bristol. The Cabot Circus development area contains shops, offices, a cinema, a hotel and 250 apartments. The shopping centre has over 92,900 square meters of shop floor space containing retail outlets and leisure facilities and employing over 4,000 local people.
The challenge:
The day started off with the students interviewing the volunteers to find out about their different roles, responsibilities and the Essential Skills required to do their jobs. Students then went on a tour of the premises, which allowed the teams to see the great variety of jobs available in the world of retail.
Taking on the role of Customer Service Assistants, students were challenged to apply their Problem Solving skills to ensure customer experiences were positive and customer satisfaction remained high by Listening Carefully. Tasked with promoting customer loyalty, teams needed to create a brand-new scheme to attract and retain customers.
The day culminated in student Customer Service Teams presenting their work, putting their Sharing Ideas skills to use in demonstrating their understanding of customer service and customer loyalty incentives.
What they said:
“It’s been a great opportunity for the kids to have an insight into the real world of work.” – Teacher
“I enjoyed seeing how involved the children were. It was great to see how much they enjoyed the tour.” – Volunteer
“Can we come again tomorrow?!” – Student
“We’re really proud of how we’ve worked as a team. We listened to each other and worked really well together.” – Student
Thanks to everyone for such a great trip day!
