HIT kicks off 'Have a Go' road-show

HIT kicks off 'Have a Go' road-show with lessons in the art of napkin folding from Jon Clay manager of HIT's Sussex team!

It's Tuesday 19^th July and today we have been invited to a careers event in Eastbourne. We have our own stand where we plan on getting year 10 students from the school involved in our 'Have a Go' activity.

The venue is Ratton Bourne School in Eastbourne and myself and Lee from the Sussex team will be here representing HIT to highlight apprenticeships in the hospitality and catering industry. This is the first careers event of the summer for us and is also Ratton Schools first ever careers fair! It's not your typical careers event as the school has recognised that not all students will go into further education but may also go straight into full time work, with this in mind there is a mixture of colleges, training providers and local employers all here offering advice.

We chose napkin folding because it was something everyone could have a go at and something i am also quite good at. 

Whilst we were demonstrating various styles of napkin displays a young student came up to me and said can I fold the napkin to make a flower? Well a fan yes, a bishops hat yes, maybe even a swan! But I've never tried a flower. I asked her to show me and she duly demonstrated and folded a perfect flower. Well I'm not used to being humbled by a 14 year old but it's refreshing to know that the young people out there can still surprise me from time to time and teach me something.

This has been a fantastic opportunity to not only raise the profile of Worldskills London 2011 but also make young people aware of the career opportunities you get with an apprenticeship in hospitality and catering and also giving them some knowledge they can take away and possibly use next time their family has a dinner party.