Employability through Comedy and Storytelling (KS4-KS5)
Workshop Provider: Push
Workshop Themes & Tags: Soft skills, skills development, confidence, resilience, storytelling, public speaking, initiative, problem solving, reframing failure, interpersonal skills, humour, employability, employability skills, applications, interviews, post-16 choices, post-18 choices, further education, and higher education
Age Suitability: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5
Can your workshop be delivered to schools online?: Yes
Delivery Locations : England, Wales, Scotland
Delivery Locations by Region : South West England, South East England, London & Home Counties, East of England, West Midlands, North West England, Yorkshire & Humber, North East England, North Wales, South East Wales, South West Wales, South Scotland
Workshop/Assembly Summary:
Push, by using professional comedians and writers, deliver both whole year group assembly style sessions, and smaller workshops. The assemblies are 45-60 minutes long, and the workshops tend to last the school day to enable our presenter/s to do more in-depth work with smaller groups.
Workshops are run for 10-25 students, focusing on building their self-confidence, resilience and soft skills for 21st century employment. The workshop uses practical comedy and improvisation exercises (solo/group), games and role plays - interweaved with small sections of motivational presentation and peer discussion/feedback, to build students' understanding of employability, soft skills (primarily interpersonal skills), the power of thinking of their lives as a story to be written (for HE/job applications) and learning through failure.
If public speaking is an important element to your workshop, Push can schedule the opportunity for each student to put together and practice a short piece on their employment or HE aspirations. Push also have worksheets and resources made available after the session. The sessions can be run by Moj Taylor, Minna Davies or Guy Reynolds, or if required Push can send more than one presenter.
Moj is a professional actor/comedian and has vast experience running 1,000s of Push workshops, as well as teaching comedy at festivals such as Glastonbury, Spree Festival Paisley and Camp Bestival. Minna is also a professional stand-up comedian having studied Theatre at the University of York, and is currently one of the Managers of Push (having also delivered many presentations and workshops). Guy has an MA in Ancient Warfare and is looking to gain a doctorate shortly. Guy is one of Push’s most experienced presenters.
All Push presenters are first generation from their family to choose and successfully navigate higher education and connection to employment. All Push presenters possess an enhanced DBS, and are fully trained on delivering careers information and advice. The presenters can be on hand after the workshop or gig, for a Q&A with parents/students/staff.
Additional Information:
Push are a non-profit outreach organisation founded in 1992 by Johnny Rich, and run by professional actors, comedians and writers. As a social enterprise, their mission is to support the more disadvantaged students to develop self-confidence, self-worth and employability skills to get what they want from life. Their irreverent team of creatives run high-energy interactive presentations and workshops for students and key influencers. They focus on 4 frameworks: careers & FE/HE choices, employability training, study skills and public speaking / comedy. They also run CPD sessions for staff and student ambassadors, to enhance teaching and staff-led CEIAG and careers education. Push have a National Careers Award for working with young people aged 14-19.
As a non-profit we only charge what it realistically costs us to run the sessions. Prices are all-inclusive and include presenter fees (preparation and delivery), workshop materials, worksheets, all expenses: public transport/petrol, sustenance and accommodation (if needed). Please enquire for more details.
Testimonials:
"The College at Sirius invites many guests to speak to our cohort, however, there was a general consensus amongst the students that Moj is one of the best they have ever seen. He combined humour, anecdotal evidence and conviction to ensure that his presentation was relatable and his message delivered. A fantastic and thought- provoking event’"
—Rick Rhodes, 6th Form Tutor, Sirius Academy
"Just wanted to thank you for the fantastic workshop you ran for our Year 10 visitors at our HE taster event. The students and staff found your session inspiring, funny, and very thought provoking. You spoke their language and encouraged them to explore more deeply what really matters when making important choices. You helped dispel some of the concerns and general myths around access to higher education, which was great. The content and delivery was exceptional and the best form of careers advice and guidance I have ever seen. Thanks again and I am sure we will be working with you again in the future."
—Lynn Ross, HE taster event, Brooksby Melton College, Leicestershire, 2016
“We are extremely grateful to Push for their fantastic presentation. The themes of the session, whilst extremely important, would lose power without the polished, engaging and empowering delivery employed by Push. The College at Sirius invites many guests to speak to our cohort, however, there was a general consensus amongst the students that Push were one of the best they have ever seen. The presenter combined humour, anecdotal evidence and conviction to ensure that his presentation was relatable and his message delivered. A fantastic and thought-provoking event”
—Head of Sixth Form, Sirius Academy
"I wanted to offer some feedback on our experience of having had the Push group into school to talk to our Year 12 students – they were brilliant. The presenter who came to us on the day was fabulous – and offered our students a really frank and honest account of the options available to them and he had them hooked. We had feedback from staff and students which suggested he (and the Push group information he brought with him) was one of the best tutorial presentations they had received this year. If any funding does become available to allow Push to come back to us PLEASE let me know."
—Head of Sixth Form, De Aston School
“I have never before had a whole group turn round at the end of a session and straight away say how good it was: informative, entertaining and inspiring. Push pitch it just right and the mix of humour and information works really well"
—Head of Sixth at Bruton School for Girls, Somerset
"Please can I pass on my sincere thanks to Push who delivered an incredible session to our year 9 students on 30/4/2018. Our students at The Boulevard Academy are known within our business community as being incredibly engaging, however the Push presenter engaged the students with a passion that I have never seen. It was magical to watch and be a part of as a teacher. What was said mirrored our academy ethos and really engaged the students. Students actively sat up, their body language was switched on and they were all actively listening and taking part. It was lovely to see 100% of the students smiling. As we all know, to have 120 students smiling is an amazing feat. Staff even stayed in to listen to the talk when they should've been elsewhere, they enjoyed it that much they wanted to stay. Throughout the day after the talk students approached me and were almost begging me to invite Push back in. This is definitely a talk that students will remember for the rest of their lives. Thank you and we really hope that we can invite you back into the academy very soon. Your session was exhilarating."
—IAG Coordinator & Teacher of Art, The Boulevard Academy, Hull
"Our students, understandably can sometimes be sceptical of external speakers, and some find it difficult to ask questions, or perform tasks in front of others, however, within 5 minutes of the session at Outwood Academy Carlton starting (The first of the day) students were completely captivated, and hanging on every hilarious, yet thought-provoking word Moj spoke. I have never seen an “inspirational speaker” (and I put that in inverted commas, because Moj is so much more than inspirational) with so much energy, so much joie de vivre, and so much spoken and un-spoken comedy – but also backed up with a real understanding of careers, the Higher Education system and a deep understanding of life in general. Following the session at Outwood Academy Carlton, students were so enthralled and spellbound by the delivery of the period that we ran into their break-time by a few minutes, they just wanted to hear more! The amount of amazing feedback from staff and students which I overheard in corridors following the activity at Carlton was overwhelming, and we have had a large amount of students filling out evaluation forms wanting more sessions! Students sat open mouthed in awe at the inspiring tales expertly woven together by our presenter. The amount of students laughing and smiling, whilst really taking in the deeper message of the session was amazing, and really something that I have never seen before, but would love to see again! I cannot recommend Push enough to any school, college or HE establishment. The level of engagement and inspiration from the session was truly incredible. Thank you.”
—HeppSY+ Administrative Officer, Outwood Academy Carlton / Outwood Academy Shafton, Barnsley