In December 2020, ViewHR instructed Ollie, a recent Business Management graduate, to create a business marketing project that aligned with our goals and would help to move our marketing efforts forward. As a recent graduate in 2020 (coronavirus year!), Ollie welcomed the opportunity to gain valuable experience with a project that would in turn support him with his future job hunting.

Gemma Murphy, founder of ViewHR explains: “It has always been hard enough for school leavers and graduates to get into their desired careers, this has been made substantially more difficult as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, opportunities just aren’t there even for part-time jobs! I believe that business owners have a responsibility to provide a mechanism to give grads and school leavers an opportunity to gain some valuable experience, be that as a project or work experience. This’ll give them a springboard into future employment opportunities.” Gemma goes on to say, “I wanted ViewHR to lead the way to support leavers in whatever way we could so it was my pleasure to offer Ollie the opportunity to work with us on a business marketing project to provide insights into his chosen area of future employment. We all have a moral responsibility to support our future workforce and as a business owner I wanted to pay it forward!”

ViewHR asked Ollie to give his account of having the opportunity to support ViewHR and gain some work experience in his desired field:

“The job market is always a tough place to be for anyone, but 2020 has taken a bad situation and made it a whole lot worse. With lectures being cancelled and degrees suffering as a result, this year’s graduates have been put through the educational wringer more than most and with unemployment at record highs, the near future is far from promising. As a victim of being a graduate in 2020 myself, I have experienced these struggles first hand and understand the despair that befalls the class of 2020, however with recent opportunities I have discovered that it may not all be doom and gloom after all. Are there opportunities for grads? And is there light at the end of this seemingly long tunnel?

Having failed to find the beginnings of a career since leaving university in the spring of 2020, I realised the one thing that seemed to stick out to employers was my lack of experience in my desired field, however I could not gain the experience without a job. This vicious cycle is the harsh reality for graduates nation-wide and for this there seems to be only one viable solution – to gain experience without employment.

I was lucky enough to be offered an opportunity to utilise my degree and subsequent skill-set for ViewHR a local growing business. I was able to use what I had learned during my time studying Business Management at university to devise a marketing campaign proposal, a field in which I wish to start a career but cannot seem to find a job, in order to help a local business to grow and expand their consumer reach while gaining valuable experience to put on the CV. So many unemployed students have been bored senseless over the two lockdowns and dedicating that time to bettering your career prospects can only be a positive thing in my opinion. I went from being a fresh graduate faced with the prospect of unemployment, part-time jobs and a failing career to a business graduate with a fully functional marketing campaign proposal under the belt and a first happy customer in the space of four weeks.”

Matthew Lawson, Chairman of the New Forest Business Partnership, said “I am so pleased to see that NFBP member business View HR is supporting young people in gaining valuable work experience. With all the challenges of the past 12 months for local businesses, it is vital that the New Forest job market supports our talented local young people in this way.”

ViewHR would like to thank Ollie for his hard work during the time with us and to ask businesses of any size to pay it forward to support the future workforce in gaining employment in their chosen field. We would love to hear your stories of how your business is paying it forward to our next business generation, after all they are the future!