Tag: knowledge

Leave a Lasting Impression

Author: | 22 Feb 2023

Our scholar Rishi attended one of the workshops run the Trust’s Employability Project thinking he was pretty sorted out around finding a degree-level job on graduation. 

But he discovered he had a lot to learn and a lot to gain by coming along.

 

Recently I attended an employability workshop organized by the Longford Trust’s Employability team and led by Sam Smith, the CEO of PEPTalks. It was for me an incredibly valuable experience, offering insightful macro analysis of the job market with detailed micro analyses that catered to every participant whatever their career aspirations.

And so much valuable information was packed into such a short amount of time. The workshop did it all in a couple of hours!

Practical advice on the jobs market

Before going into such programmes and workshops I always think that, having already developed my CV with many experienced professionals, I have little to gain. But I am happy to report that, once again, I was wrong. Sam’s passion for helping individuals like me to succeed was evident throughout the workshop.  He provided a wealth of practical advice on how to get on in the job market, from refining a compelling personal narrative to identifying and showcasing our unique value propositions.

He also emphasised the importance of staying nimble and adaptable in today’s fast-changing job market and provided tools and strategies for doing so. All of this was delivered in an engaging and accessible manner, making it easy for every participant to grasp the essential concepts. As a follow-up to the workshop, there was specific advice tailored to each of us. It has left a lasting impression on me.

Tailor-made guidance

What impressed me most was how Sam managed to tailor his advice to each participant. Despite the time constraints and wildly different career aspirations, he managed to provide detailed and insightful analyses. His personalised attention made us all feel seen and heard, and the opportunity to learn from someone as experienced and knowledgeable was incredibly valuable.

I would also like to acknowledge the Longford Trust for organising this workshop and providing us with the opportunity to learn from such an experienced and knowledgeable speaker. As a Longford Trust scholar, I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunities to learn from people as knowledgeable as Sam. The Trust’s commitment to levelling the playing field for its scholars and giving us the opportunity to prove ourselves is truly inspiring.

Any Longford Scholars, past or present, wanting to follow in Rishi’s steps on one of our Employability training courses should contact Abi Andrews to find out more.

Best decision of my life

Author: | 18 Dec 2019

The best decision of my life. 

How evolution theorist Charles Darwin helped snap one Longford scholar out of a stupor whilst incarcerated in the US. After studying at Cambridge, here he considers his life-changing decision…..

Great Meadow.

Sounds like the name of some quaint resort set among lilies and lilacs, tall trees and lush grass.  The reality is more sombre. Great Meadow belies its name. Instead it is a rough and raw maximum-security prison in upstate New York.  It was here, behind the imposing concrete walls of this prison, I made the best decision of my life, to enrol in college.

I was pushed toward my decision by a fellow inmate who walked up to me one grey morning in the equally grey and grim prison yard.  He looked at me momentarily before asking what I was doing.  I didn’t know what he meant until he clarified that I could and should be spending my time more productively, namely by enrolling in the prison’s college programme. I looked at him, then looked past him, up towards one of several guard towers overlooking the yard and its prisoners.

Before long I was in a classroom, listening to a history professor discussing Charles Darwin and the Victorian crisis of faith.

For me, as perhaps others, education is enlightenment, a recalibration of thinking, a refocus of perspective.  The ability to see oneself and the world as not just ordinary but extraordinary.

Before college, I was adrift in prison. My thinking was adrift, and limited.  I was like someone sitting in the crow’s nest of an old whale ship.  On the lookout for whales, yet unable to see anything save miles upon miles of undulating blue sea rolling over and onward towards oblivion beneath an endless expanse of blue sky.  Like the natural elements, the flow of routine days in prison can have a hypnotic effect on the mind, on one’s outlook. The tedium can render you drowsy and numb to the point where you’re unaware of this, forgetful of that.

Education snapped me out of my stupor and instilled crystal-clear awareness.

Following my release and deportation to Britain, I was relatively confident of getting a decent job.  But after two years of working in a restaurant, I’m still searching for that ever-elusive decent job.  In the interim I have attended and graduated from the Institute of Continuing Education, an adult college which is part of Cambridge University. And, while I’m still looking for a better job than the one I presently have, I’ve been uplifted and fortified by my Cambridge education. Uplifted and gratified, for although the job search is necessary, it’s not primary.  The accumulation of knowledge and wisdom is for me the only sensible goal in life.