Real-life work challenges tackled by school students

School students were given a real taste of the world of work through a placement activity week organised by a leading engineering firm and the University of Wolverhampton.

ZF Lemforder joined forces with the University to enable 27 Walsall Academy students to gain experience through a factory visit and a week of focused activities.

The placement week started with the Year 12 students visiting the firm’s Wednesbury factory and concluded with an awards ceremony.

Head of Department for Finance, Accounting, Systems and Economics at the University, Andy Groves, liaised with staff at ZF Lemforder to create a number of problem-solving challenges for the students to complete throughout the week, based on real-life issues faced by the company.

This included a ‘treasure hunt’ which required the students to navigate themselves around the City Campus gathering ‘clues’ along the way. Over the next couple of days, the students were given a programme of mini-lectures and talks delivered by academics and other relevant professionals.

Topics included managing absenteeism, health and safety, mergers and acquisitions, digital capability, supply chain management, sustainability and team working.

Students were split into groups and given a specific issue to focus on, leading up to a group presentation at the end of the week. ‌To make the experience as 'real life' as possible a series of 'distraction activities' were organised. These were designed to take students away from the task they were focussing on to do something completely different. These fun, team-building activities included designing bridges out of paper, masking tape and paperclips and making boats out of Lego.