Product delivery and digital skills student work experience for LARF24
Overview
In this innovative programme, hundo and Leeds City Council joined forces to provide work experience placements for students from Leeds City College and University Technical College Leeds. Commencing January 2024 for 5 weeks, the students will work with hundo to design, build, deliver and promote a real product - an online, immersive version of Leeds Apprenticeship Recruitment Fair 2024.
In doing so, students will gain essential skills for working in a fast-paced, tech-forward and largely remote workplace. At the end of the placement students will present a successful product to their employer (Leeds City Council) - a valuable and accessible resource for connecting employers, educational institutions and skills-providers in the Leeds region with career starters and job seekers.
The placement will be facilitated using the hundo platform, which is designed to replicate the communication, collaboration and project management tools used by real-world remote workplaces. The platform provides a central hub for students to access their briefs, resources, instructions and deliverables, and to track their own progress.
Experience, outcomes and skills
Through the placement, students will gain the following experiences:
- Remote team working, including best practice for virtual collaboration and communication
- Identifying and using tech-forward solutions for boosting productivity and creativity
- Using innovative tools for creating and presenting a project
- Delivering a brief and working to a specified timeline
- Promoting a new product on behalf of a client, online and in-person
- Identifying strengths, skills and experience, and demonstrating these to potential employers in CVs and applications
- Use of workplace tech tools such as Canva, ChatGPT and Perplexity. All tools come with a skills badge, which is awarded to students who prove they’ve mastered that tool.
And will build important employability skills including:
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Creative problem solving
- Research and analysis
- Teamwork
- Digital literacy
- Adaptability
- Agility
- Presenting
- Time management
- Goal setting
- Initiative
- Self-reflection
The hundo platform is designed to be user-friendly for younger users and incorporates gamified elements and incentives to encourage users to continually build their skills set. The skills map shows students the skills they will gain during their placement. By clicking on a skill, students can learn about what that skill means, and why it’s crucial in the workplace, and how it can be demonstrated. As they progress through their placement and demonstrate these skills, students are awarded with skill badges on their hundo profile. hundo profiles can be shared with a link, or exported as a ready-made CV.
Placement briefs and deliverables
Throughout their placement, students work to briefs set by hundo, which includes information, instructions, and deliverables. Each brief builds on students’ skills and is flexible to account for different ability levels.
Each brief requires students to produce a piece of work. The student must share their work enabling hundo to track their progress and award them with the relevant skills badges.
Louise Wood - Employment and Skills Senior Manager, Leeds City Council
"It is crucial to provide young people in the city with work experience opportunities for multiple reasons. Our commitment aligns with the Leeds Future Talent plan, focusing on supporting skills development and inspiring careers, ensuring that young individuals are well-prepared for the professional world. Additionally, our efforts aim to extend the impact of the popular Leeds Apprenticeship Recruitment Fair. By adding the option of an online platform, we enhance accessibility, creating a continuous resource for countless individuals beyond the annual event. We are very pleased to have been able to collaborate with hundo on this project as they actively engage with young minds through forward-thinking initiatives, fostering the development of relevant workplace skills in an environment that is both inspirational and engaging."