Rewarding experience for McAfee at Bucks Skills Show

The security software company attended October’s event and have written about their experience of meeting local young people seeking careers inspiration.

McAfee Aylesbury volunteers attend the Bucks Skills Show

Written by Fiona Tayler, McAfee Aylesbury 

Six members of the McAfee Aylesbury site recently spent two days meeting and advising teens at the Bucks Skills Show. The show, run by Buckinghamshire Skills Hub, aims to help young people find their own work experience, apprenticeships, and jobs by providing an “interactive careers experience where young people can discover different industry sectors for themselves and ask questions about career pathways.”

Taking place over two days, the first day is open to students and teachers from Buckinghamshire secondary schools, and the second day is open to young people and their parents or carers. Entry is free, and both days offer a huge selection of local, national, and international organisations for attendees to talk to about potential career pathways.

Several members of McAfee Aylesbury have attended the show over the years to share their knowledge about paths into a selection of IT-related roles. This year, as well as our enterprise advisor volunteers (and their young helper), we had members of Engineering, Technical Support, and Information Development in attendance. 

We had a variety of activities on the stand to do with online security (and some chocolates) to get conversations started and we found that it flowed really easily from there.

The Fake vs. Fact activity proved very popular, and competition was high – we had some fabulous conversations with people while they discussed which were real. There were also some codes to break and fake websites to spot and it was obvious that a lot of young people are interested in where their technology comes from and how it’s designed, as well as keeping themselves safe online.

The activities helped to open up some great conversations - discussion topics included cybersecurity and its importance in the modern world, what young people can do to set themselves apart from other candidates when applying for roles and when they’re in interview situations, STEM subjects, and the huge variety of roles available in an IT organisation.

We were able to split the Friday into two shifts. Even so, we were hoarse by the time we finished because we were rarely without people at the stand – there is a really high level of interest in McAfee and what we do. 

There was a high level of interest in the work experience opportunities that we offer (from both the young people and their teachers) and several enquiries about our plans for apprenticeships.

I have to be honest that I was a bit nervous beforehand, but it was a really enjoyable and rewarding experience and I’d definitely be up for doing it again.

Interested in supporting next year’s Bucks Skills Show?

If you would like an experience as positive as McAfee’s get in touch with the Bucks Skills Hub team to put your name forward as a sponsor and/or exhibitor of next year’s event.

Email skillshub@bbf.uk.com or call 01494 927156. Visit the Bucks Skills Hub website for more information.

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