Civil Service Live Network: Civil Service Challenge

When you’ve got 24 hours to prepare a convincing presentation on the benefits of apprenticeships to an audience of business figures, the last thing you want are IT problems preventing internet access. But that’s exactly what happened to Civil Service Challenge’s London contingent, explains team member Peter Noon.

The team, who named themselves 4 Hire, came to regard the troublesome wireless connection in their King’s Cross hotel as just one more part of the challenge. “It created a few real problems,” says Noon, whoseday job is as an investigations officer with HM Revenue & Customs in Widnes, Lancashire. “We were working until after 2am to try and combat that, and at one point even thought of using Facebook because we couldn’t get our emails out.”

However, the IT problems did have the effect of building team spirit and bringing the participants together. “I think we drew strength from each other,” says Noon. “The fact that we didn’t know anybody was put to one side; people came forward with ideas which were respected by the group.” Strong spirits were needed the next morning, when the team was faced with rising at six o’clock – after only a few hours sleep – to try and deliver the event that had been thrashed out in ‘storyboard’ format the evening before. Another problem was that many of the employers that the team had hoped would come along and speak about the merits of apprenticeships cancelled at short notice. Nevertheless, the feedback the group received on their presentation was encouraging.

“The people that did come were delighted, and the idea of taking on an apprentice was very well-received,” Noon says. And he adds that the apprenticeship message may have an audience closer to home: “My son is 19, so he is after this kind of thing!”

Last updated 1043 days ago by Civil Service Live