Guiding the Talent of the Future
At KrakenFlex we are committed to tackling climate change utilising innovative technology solutions. We do this by accelerating the integration of renewable energy and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) into the grid. This is no small task, and there’s always room for more courageous, clever, and enthusiastic people to join us in this exciting journey.
We see it as our duty to inspire younger generations and show them the importance of fighting climate change. Part of this is showing them how they could work in a role that will do just that, whether that’s with us at the Octopus Energy family, with someone else, or even a company they create themselves!
With this in mind, my colleagues and I were over the moon when we were invited to deliver a set of sessions at St Anthony’s Roman Catholic School’s Career Days in Manchester across June and July.
This kind of presentation is different from day-to-day client meetings or career fair events we’ve attended in the past. For this, it was imperative to keep the students engaged for a whole hour (no easy task!), and to try to impart knowledge that really stays with them. To achieve this, I personally tried a joke and got complete silence from the students! Luckily for me, my colleagues saved the day with a very clever comment…
What really got the students attention were the interactive games we prepared, especially the “Energy Comparison Challenge” envisioned by my colleague Roland Dosa. The game rules were simple, the students had to take four different energy sources (Gas, Coal, Renewables and Nuclear) and sort then in order on the whiteboard according to their Carbon Emissions, Cost of Building & Running and Time to Build, the objective of this game was to show them the advantage of renewables.
We also collectively made a matching game where the students matched job title with job description and skills/qualification required for the role. To develop this activity, we asked the entire Octopus Energy Family to help us describe their roles and which skills/qualification allows them to bring their A-game to their day-to-day, even our own CEO Greg Jackson participated.
Using these games, flashy visual aid and obviously not my joke, we could say our goal was met.
Talking with students was not an easy task, you can either be the boring presenter that came that day and talked for an hour, or that person that drives them to become an Engineer/Developer/Recruiter/Project Manager/Product Owner, etc. From a personal point of view this is exactly what happened to me when I was as young as the students were.
I didn’t have the opportunity for professionals to visit my school and speak about their roles when I was younger. However, in my case, a truly kind and knowledgeable Electrical Engineer (Gregorio) came to my house to do some work and allowed me to see him working and I got the chance to bombard him with questions! Also, years later during my Senior High School years, an Electrical Engineer (Federico) friend of my mom’s invited me to his office to have a 1-on-1 to talk about his career. Those two days stayed with me for life and not only made me decide to pursue a career as an Electrical Engineer myself but made me understand that we must motivate young students to pursue their dream roles. Or at least offer them an insight of what we do, hoping this will help them in making their decision.
School careers days are a fantastic opportunity for students, teachers, and for professionals, not only do you get the chance to speak with students and listen to their questions, doubts, you also get the opportunity to exchange ideas with teachers on how to make a greater impact on the young future of this society.
Overall, it was a gratifying experience to do this presentation and I hope one day in the future, one of these students will inspire others to pursue their dream role.