Uptree

For years now, the main avenue to learning was to attend school. Due to the recent pandemic, young people in education took a heavy hit. Just like the larger society, they had to learn to adjust and adapt to a new way of living but...

How are you to establish a new way of learning when you’re still studying yourself?

Students have now faced many challenges having to work from home, online, or a hybrid setup between work and school.

It has been found that some of the most common issues are:

• Technical issues

• Distractions and motivation

• Adapting to a new way of life and unfamiliar tech

• Lack of human interaction

One of our Uptree values is 'Young People First' so, in this article, we'll be looking at how to support students from now until the end of the academic year.

Technical issues

In an online environment, software issues can happen. Students from all backgrounds can suffer from a drop in internet connection or having a lack of knowledge when it comes to using a computer. Students can also lack the hardware or software required to study from home.

Ofcom reports estimate in 2020 between 1m and 1.8million children do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet.

Distractions and Motivation

Learning and studying from home offers the ultimate freedom to students. They can arrange themselves how they please, work at their own pace, and how they feel most comfortable. For some students this is great, but for others, it can create complacency and nonchalance.

A study taken last year showed that only 34% of students felt motivated to study during lockdown .

Working from home can also create many distractions for students, particularly those that have large families and many siblings in one household with limited space. It creates difficulty when attending online classes or finding the time to do work.

Adapting to a new way of life and unfamiliar tech

A lot of students were midway through their studies when covid initially hit and the learning process they’ve established for years has been changed for good. In response to the pandemic, many institutions moved their offerings online, with a large number choosing to adopt a ‘hybrid’ or ‘blended’ mix of online and face-to-face teaching .

Adjusting to a new virtual way of learning whereby you don’t have your teacher on hand to help you and explain things to you can be tough. Additionally, having to work using a number of different platforms and multimedia formats can take a while for students to get used to. Not to mention that the teachers are also getting a hang of it, too!

Lack of human interaction

The lack of interaction that students have with teachers as well as classmates can be particularly challenging to the way a student learn and the mental process.

Talking amongst their peers and learning from each other at times are great in the way students receive information. Take science classes for example, where lessons are better suited to a traditional learning format and students tend to do better because of live examples.

Our solutions at Uptree

We recognise the disadvantages that come with converting everything online and the difficulty many students face, especially in the early careers space. This is why we've been thinking a lot about how to best support students, especially from now until the end of the academic year and during exam season.

When it comes to technical issues and software concerns, some things are just unavoidable e.g your internet drops off. We can’t have control over that – however, we can have control over making things as simple as possible for the young people we work with.

At Uptree, everything a young person needs can all be found in one simple place: www.uptree.co . This is our user-friendly platform for students, parents, and teachers to navigate their way around careers information. This way, we provide a place where students can then refer back to if by any chance their internet cuts out. They can find up-to-date and relevant industry and careers information which can make all the difference.

Work experience events, apprenticeship/internship opps, company pages and careers courses

Tackling distractions within the household is tricky, but are able to keep students motivated when it comes to their careers education and their efforts to their schoolwork. Our work experience events , application masterclasses, and #FuturesUP careers fairs offer real-life opportunities to speak to esteemed staff in reputable companies. Often talks centre around their journey into their roles and their personal lives which encourages students to keep pushing forward with whatever they plan to do.

As well as these things, Uptree also offers a range of services to aid students’ professional development. Our Careers Learning Programme on the Uptree platform act as short, self-guided workshops aiding students on what employers are looking for, key skills to have when entering the working world, and insight into different sectors.

Monthly meetings between Uptree staff and our group of Uptree student alumni, or ‘ambassadors’ allow us to understand some of the things that students require or struggling with and allow Uptree to market their services to aid students.

Some of the Uptree Ambassadors in their monthly meetings with Education Manager, Rebecca

So how can you support students?

As a partner of Uptree, there are many ways you can get involved in supporting students.

• Run a work experience day or summer work placement with Uptree - Our students often benefit from our work experience days as they find them really insightful and are able to benefit from inside information given to them from the speakers on the day.

• Create articles targeted at Gen-Z. By writing articles and releasing regular content around your company and on social platforms, you can engage and motivate young people to aim higher when it comes to careers.

• Build inclusive recruitment process around hiring, timelines and outreach strategies - Allowing a more inclusive recruitment process, increases the scope of talent available to your business. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds do not have the means, or the know-how to apply to roles but have a real talent. If a more inclusive method can be incorporated into the hiring process then opportunities would be more accessible to them.

All in all, students need to be supported by parents, teachers, and employers as adjusting to the new way of life can be quite difficult. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of students and being able to play on that will aid massively to their development.

If you would like to get in touch with us to discuss working with young people and supporting them from now until the end of the academic year, then get in touch via info@uptree.co