A GROUP of pupils from schools in Thornbury and Alveston have visited employers in the area to learn more about the how the organisations are run.

The 16 pupils from Castle School and Marlwood visited Alexandra Workwear and Europa Group, finding out about all aspects of the two businesses from their history and production processes to advertising and customer services.

Textiles students were given a history of Alexandra Workwear from senior members of the company, before getting the chance to design outfits for customers, see how marketing materials are created and how the company website is adapted and developed.

While visiting Europa Group, students went on a treasure hunt to find and interview specific members of staff, before having a look at the call centre to observe how staff used language differently when addressing customers compared to their colleagues in the staff café.

Following the visits, each student said their confidence in understanding how companies work and how it relates to their studies had improved, and that they were very interested to find out about the varying roles each person played.

Sarah MacIsaac from Premium Partners said, “We are incredibly grateful to Alexandra and Europa for engaging with our schools in such a positive way.

“Our students have benefitted enormously for the experiences they have had with staff.”

Elaine Fitt from Europa Group said, “We were delighted to assist the children in making their career choices - they were well behaved and a credit to their schools.

“We look forward to repeating this exercise soon.”