ProjX

We are in the process of planning our Projx weeks for 2021. If you would like to get involved please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you are a company interested in volunteering your time for this project. Please contact us.

The intention is that by participating in the program students will:

• gain a greater understanding of the range of disciplines and job roles in a workplace, mimicking as far as possible a multi-disciplinary and multi-partner work project.
• gain experience of project management and business functions through real work scenarios.
• further develop skills in problem solving, collaboration, innovation as well as leadership, team work, communication and planning.
• be involved in planning, designing, implementing, presenting and reviewing their project, exposing them to a range of situations, skills and job roles.

The companies will guide the students through the various sessions, which will be delivered via professional online meeting platforms, providing focused input and expertise to the project. They will be able to explain to the students how their business works, how it fits into the supply chain, the kind of job roles and skills required. The Centre for Leadership Performance dedicated and experienced team will facilitate and project manage the program and will provide support to students throughout the program to ensure students get the most from their ProjX experience.

With our highstreets deserted and consumers moving to online shopping, we want to work with young people to visualise and shape the future of our towns. As part of the wider area re-development that is currently underway in Allerdale and Copeland, the teams will be asked to focus on the design of a new business which would attract people into the local area.

Local business experts will provide guidance and workshops so that concepts can be presented in a professional manner at the end of the project.

The concept should be creative, and aim to attract visitors both locally and wider. Consideration could be given to the environment impact and sustainability, it should also be within a budget, but also prove to be financially sustainable, adhering to local guidelines and also be operable under current social distancing guidelines.

• Introductions; overview of the ProjX program
• Guidance on how to use the online platforms
• Activities to get to know each other; setting goals and expectations; introduction to their workbooks
• A formal ‘project briefing’ from the client
• A range of online company sessions
  • What is Project Management?
  • The role of a Human Resources department
  • An Ideation session
  • 3D modelling and design
  • Community engagement
  • Presentation on engineering quality in industry
  • Project finance and costing
  • Marketing and PR
  • Legal considerations
  • Presentation skills
• Daily reviews of learning and progress towards goals and Project Management work book collation
• Evaluation of students’ skills and capabilities
• Assessment and feedback

The program will run over the October half term week 26th – 30th October and will based around access to a Microsoft Teams platform and Zoom video conferencing. This will be facilitated by CfLP and the students involved would be invited to access this sharing platform. From this a scheduled timetable of company-led workshops, sessions and independent work would be available. Online sessions will be held in the morning with independent time in the afternoon.

The students would be expected to log on daily to attend the scheduled live sessions with the business partners and complete work independently or as groups throughout the week. This would be managed by the CfLP team who would be able to provide support and guidance throughout the programme.

Access to Microsoft Teams if added as a guest user – using their school email address. This platform will be used as the central means of coordinating participants on the project by CfLP, but also the means by which teams will collaborate and share files.

Access to Zoom meetings. Workshops may be led by external collaborators using this platform, but will be administrated by CfLP.

Many tasks will involve working on professional documents and sharing on forums so a laptop, tablet or home desktop is essential. Phones are not preferable.

The Centre for Leadership performance will work with the schools to ensure that the delivery of the virtual ProjX program adheres to the appropriate safeguarding measure as laid out in the Keeping Children safe in education guidance. This would include making sure a designated Enhanced CRB checked member of staff is present on all conference and video meetings, there will no one to one meeting between students and delivery partners, all meetings will be password protected and CfLP will monitor all information sent via the online sharing platform.