This programme brought together INEOS, the world’s largest manufacturer of petrochemicals speciality chemicals and oil rich products, with 30, Year 11, students from the private, non-profit International School of Geneva based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The challenge, set by Allison Crawford, HR Director for INEOS and David Kirkwood, Director of the Polymer business for INEOS, was to come up with ideas to create a recruitment campaign aimed at apprentices and graduates.
All the students left the Classroom to Boardroom programme with a deeper understanding of business and enterprise.
Students gained knowledge of some complexities of the circular economy, forthcoming EU regulations and the challenges of engaging and influencing Gen Z around changing behaviour towards recycling.
The students demonstrated that they were able to grasp difficult concepts and develop and prepare a presentation full of innovation and insights that the panel of leaders in INEOS had not thought of before.
Greet Van EetVelde, Global head of Energy and Innovation Policy, INEOS
The fact that they have taken ownership of the subject in such a short period of time and could come up – in groups and individually – with a well-founded and well-presented view of suggestions and solutions deserve a lot of praise. The interesting arguments have greatly exceeded my expectations, not to mention the open and constructive criticism on our ‘conventional’ ways of communicating, sponsoring and recruiting. It was an interesting experience, not only for the students.
Allison Crawford, HR Director, INEOS
Seeing every student contribute in the final presentation was fantastic – it was a real team effort. The quality of the work was very impressive given the length of time the students had to work on the challenge.
The best parts were having the ability to be able to finish such a challenging task in only three days and being able to present it at high standards.
I discovered that teamwork is underrated at times: everyone had to roll up their sleeves and do the heavy lifting.
I can now write speeches in less than 30 minutes. Realistically, I think this was humbling and rewarding and we were fully capable of sitting down and resolving the problem. Teamwork now has a new meaning to me.
