More than 10,000 young people joined-in for a giant careers advice assembly, through a world record attempt for National Apprenticeship Week 2017.
Schools, young people, parents, and employers from across the country tuned in to the event, called ‘The Big Assembly’, from 8.45am to 9.15am this morning.
It was introduced by apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, and featured special films of and by apprentices, as well as questions and answers with experts.
The aim was to get more than 5,000 log-ins and to set a new Guinness World Records title in the process.
They didn’t quite manage to get that many, ending with 1,809 log-ins from 200 seperate schools and colleges, but more than doubled their target for the number of young people who actually watched it – topping 10,000.
Helen Richardson, managing director of Work Pays and producer of the Big Assembly, said: “It was so impressive in terms of the number of schools, in particular, who took the time to rearrange their timetables so that their students could watch the Big Assembly.
“We didn’t quite manage to break the world record, because that relied on logins, and you could have hundreds of children watching one login.
“But we more than doubled our target for the number of young people who actually watched, which is great news with spreading the word about the huge benefits of apprenticeships and vocational training.”
She added: “Everything that happened today was delivered by apprentices, from the filming of it, to Liam Jackson, a level three business admin apprentices who hosted the whole thing, so I would like to thank them all.
“We also gave out careers-experience related prizes to 11 schools involved – including a day as acting chief executive for Nottinghamshire City Council, and a day with Boots UK learning all about how products are developed and launched.”
The East and West Midlands Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, Workpays, and GetMyFirstJob organised the record attempt, with support from The National Apprenticeship Service, and D2N2, and Leicester and Leicestershire local enterprise partnerships.
It was also backed by a wide variety of employers including East Midlands Chamber, Toyota, Highways England, Nottingham City Homes, the BBC, Derry Building Services, Derby Homes, Busy Bees, Young Professionals, EMH Group, Futures Housing Group, Uniper, as well as Boots UK, and Nottingham City Council.
Caption for main pic above: Liam Jackson, level three apprentice and Big Assembly presenter, Charlotte Potter, from Highways England, Helen Richardson, Big Assembly producer, and
Prue Day, from Get My First Job
Here are some tweets about it:
Students at our Kings Langley and Watford campus tuned in this morning to the #bigassembly for #NAW2017 pic.twitter.com/eXe0uAney9
— West Herts College (@whertscollege) March 7, 2017
We did it! @UTCLincoln How fab was that? Great team work. @BigAssembly #bigassembly #apprenticeships #nationalapprenticeshipweek #Lincoln pic.twitter.com/tFP4d6HSA7
— Ellen Messias (@EllDiva) March 7, 2017
Fantastic to be part of the @BigAssembly this morning #bigassembly pic.twitter.com/LG98D6LceU
— Myerscough College (@My_Apprentice) March 7, 2017
RT NYEngApps: We’ve organised all Apprenticeships to attend #BigAssembly today for #NAW2017 as part of awareness f… pic.twitter.com/oiBB88Steg
— Apprenteer (@apprenteer) March 7, 2017
9th May 2017 is the next East Midlands Apprentice Ambassador Training session for Apprentices who would like to share their stories in Schools. Delivered by Workpays as added value to the ASK Project, delivering free Apprenticeship Skills and Knowledge in schools.