HSDC students studying Travel & Tourism, Catering & Hospitality and Hair, Beauty & Theatrical Make-Up took part in Virtual Industry Insight Week, where they were able to listen to guest speakers from 28 companies, ranging from locally-based Southsea Coffee Co to international airlines, to exclusive 5-star hotels.
The event, which was held for the first time this year, fills the gap for missed work experience and the usual “in person” guest speakers, offering invaluable tips and tricks for interviews and insights into prospective workplaces and future employment opportunities.
Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive and included:
“Transferable skills with Katie, working with Disney, campsite courier and working on board cruise ships. I found these talks and interviews really useful.”
and
“I really enjoyed watching Vanessa’s videos and finding out about her career in the beauty industry. I relate to her as she didn’t study beauty first of all and found out studying beauty was right for her. It always gets me excited to see how hard work pays off for people in this industry. My long-time goal is to teach and create my own business one day and listening to Vanessa has made me excited for the future in this industry.”
HSDC Learning Manager Lois Neale, who organised the event, commented:
“Thank you to every one of our 28 amazing guest speakers who joined us for our Industry Insight Week. You inspired and motivated our students with your stories of success and provided hope to the future workforce, that our industries will thrive again soon. You gave invaluable industry tips and tricks for interviews and provided amazing industry insights into your workplaces, filling the gap for missed work experience this year. From us and our students, thank you! Thank you also to my wonderful teaching team, they have gone over and above arranging so many engaging and inspiring talks for our students. I am looking forward to joining our employer partners in person soon, for our forthcoming employer boards, where we share our curriculum design and plans with employers to ensure the skills and knowledge students are learning with us are the right ones to ensure our students have successful and fulfilling careers”.
With special thanks to the companies and employers who joined us:
