08/08/2023
Last month, Julie Richardson, Robbi Sher, Ahmad Hussain and Chantalle Desouza volunteered with The Switch to hold an IP Careers Morning for nine Year 12 students at Mulberry Stepney Green Sixth Form.
Founded 30 years ago, The Switch is a leading education charity that facilitates engagement between schools in Tower Hamlets and employers, to bridge the gap between students and the world of work. Through our partnership with The Switch, Reddie & Grose works with the Tower Hamlets community to help equip students with the employability skills and confidence they need to build successful careers.
Our session began with an introduction to the IP industry from a patent perspective, led by Julie. With reference to her own career journey, Julie outlined the key milestones and skills involved at each stage of a career in IP, and finished with a brief overview of our work and values at Reddie & Grose.
Robbi and Ahmad then led a more interactive part of the session. After learning about each form of IP protection and its role in society, the students were divided into smaller groups to discuss which IP rights might apply to different products. This led onto a second group task focusing on patentability. We had anticipated having to work hard to keep the students engaged here, given how many years they were from a potential career in IP. However, they applied themselves diligently to each task in a way that completely surpassed our expectations, taking on board and building upon ideas from the trainees and their peers.
In fact, the students’ ambitious and industrious nature was clear from the beginning. During the ice-breaker, in which they were asked to share what they were each hoping to gain from the session, one student offered that he would like to learn about the challenges posed to the IP system by artificial intelligence, and another raised the ethical issues around patenting safety equipment (e.g. seatbelts) and pharmaceuticals.
The morning ended with a Q&A about life as a trainee, joined by Chantalle, who covered requirements to enter the profession. We received such well-considered, targeted questions about the profession that, arriving back at our desks to several LinkedIn requests, we had to remind ourselves that these were students who had only recently sat their GCSEs.
It was both inspiring and rewarding to contribute to The Switch’s effort to provide equal opportunity by broadening the horizons of young people. We were delighted to receive positive feedback from Mulberry Stepney Green and hear that some of the students had already started independently researching the IP profession. We have no doubt that they will achieve fulfilling and secure careers, and can only look forward to our next collaboration with The Switch.
