Student, Keaton Newcombe Dickson, was recently invited to speak at Business in the Community’s National Business Class Symposium at Goldman Sachs’ offices in London following his ‘outstanding performance’ in a local business/education initiative run by VEKA and Keaton’s school, Hameldon Community College.
As part of the ‘Business Class’ initiative, a number of ‘mini apprenticeships’ were created at VEKA, job adverts were written and students were invited to apply formally for the roles. Interviews were then carried out and five students selected for the respective roles. Over the course of the following six weeks, students carried out their apprenticeship projects and ended with a judged presentation.
VEKA’s head of HR, Gabriela Hammond, said: “All the students that took part were a credit to the school, they learnt so much from the project, from what to put in a CV, to interview practice and what happens in a business environment.
“Keaton worked in the finance team and stood out throughout the programme. Everyone here at VEKA was delighted when he was asked to attend the symposium, we knew he would shine but even we had no idea just how much! Being there on the day to watch him interact with such esteemed guests was brilliant to see. We’re very proud of him.
“Burnley was already at the forefront of Business Class, being the first ever cluster of businesses and schools in the UK, but is now even better recognised thanks to Keaton!”
Clare Hutchinson, North West regional education manager for Business in the Community, added: “One of the key themes for the Business Class programme is to help young people to build successful working lives through engagement with businesses whilst they are at school. Not only did the mini apprenticeship programme with VEKA fulfil this goal, but Keaton proved himself to be a young person that any business would be proud to employ, judging by the number of senior business leaders who wanted to shake his hand and introduce themselves to him during the break!”
