B6 Women Into Leadership Group Visit Peel L&P at MediaCity

This week a group of our Women into Leadership students had an invaluable experience at Peel L&P’s MediaCity offices. They met some of the female leaders at Northstone and delivered presentations to a judging panel consisting of a Peel L&P Executive Director and other influential members of staff

The group were approached by Northstone, part of the Peel Holdings group, as they wanted to run a project over a two-week period whereby, in small groups they would plan a community event for one of their development sites. The students applied to take part in the project and those who were chosen had less than two weeks to respond to a live brief which asked them to design a vibrant, large-scale event for the residents of the Hulton Park area. They were tasked with sticking to a budget of £25,000, considering what kind of activities could be included and thinking about an effective marketing campaign.

This was a fantastic opportunity for the students and it allowed them to develop and demonstrate their critical thinking, decision making and creative thinking skills.

On the day of the presentation, after being welcomed to the Peel L&P offices, the students met Caroline Aikman, Head of Marketing – MediaCity, who gave them an overview and introduction to Peel and Media City. The students then broke off into their groups where they had an invaluable finalisation planning session with senior female members of Northstone staff: Carrie Westwell Director of People & Culture; Anna Bensky, Associate Director Major Projects and Jo Holden, Sustainability & ESG Director.

The students then delivered their presentation to judges Emma Green, Communications Manager; Chrissie Bramhall, Social Value Manager and Stephen Wild, Executive Director. The judges were all extremely impressed by the presentations with Emma Green commenting that she was ‘blown away by the talent, enthusiasm, passion and professionalism of the young women from The Sixth Form’.

After a lot of deliberation, the judges declared Khadeeja, Anisha, Ebony and Valentina to be the winning team.

The students were all extremely positive about the experience:

I leapt at the opportunity to present to Peel Holdings, as I have a keen interest in business. Their office in MediaCity was breath-taking, and all of the staff were lovely! I know this experience will benefit my future, as it’s a great addition to my personal statement. Overall, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and would do it again in a heartbeat! Ebony Hayhurst, first-year A Level Business Studies, Mathematics and Theatre Studies & Drama with Honours Programme student

I immediately knew I wanted to get involved in this activity, as it seemed like something I had never done before, and I was really looking to try something new. To my surprise, it really helped me to talk to people, who knew about the local politics, which is the job sector I want to go to. To get the chance to talk to people, who knew much more than me, was so interesting and I really loved the team environment it fostered as a whole. I truly am grateful for this project, as it gave me experience, planning, presenting and getting involved in a proper company environment. Anisha Mohammed, first-year A Level History, Mathematics, Politics with Honours Programme student.

A huge thank you to everyone at Peel L&P who planned and supported this event and to the students themselves who really excelled in their task and demonstrated so many of the skills needed to become effective leaders.