presentations and workshops

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We've detailed four sample presentations we can offer below. We're a flexible bunch and love to work with you and deliver a bespoke presentation or workshop that suits your needs so don't hesitate to get in touch.

Our help doesn't stop there, we offer more than live engagement. From the moment the presentation finishes, we offer follow up support for all your students and teachers alike. Find out more on our booking info page.

• University & wider choices
• Employability & Careers
• Study & revision skills
• Public speaking & comedy

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These workshops focus on exploring all the options and choices we're presented. We look at the rewards you want from life, the rewards different options give you...and how important mixing your ‘life cocktail’ is (combining knowledge, skills, experience, proof and personality).  We discuss the variety of post-16 options starting with your ​aspirations through our funny and impartial style.​

Through our unique style, we explore the options, choices & aspirations you might have 16+, the rewards you want from life, the rewards different options give you and how important it is to mix your ‘life cocktail’ (a mixture of knowledge, skills, experience, proof and personality)​. Each of our workshops have our unique combination of stand-up comedy and the very latest education policy, and can be tailored to your school to include any of the below:

• Options at 16/18
• Introduction the sixth form
• Uni: Why go? Choosing a uni, Push guide to the application process

• Student money: what you get, where it goes, how to survive
• Push guide to gap years, studying abroad
• Returning to education (mature students)

Here's a closer look at some of our most popular sessions within the careers branch:

Choosing a uni presents students with an entertaining and informative guide on what to think about when choosing the best uni for them as an individual. Covers courses, careers and the wider student experience.

Why go to uni puts the university route into the wider context of what school-leavers might want from life. It assists them in their decision on whether it's the right path for them. Also includes elements of choosing the right uni (as above).

Options at 18 covers the various pathways open to school-leavers, including getting a job, apprenticeships, school-leaver schemes, training, gap years and university. This is delivered in the context of developing the skills and experience needed to get where you want in life.

Our Employability workshops ask two main questions: what do you want from life and how are you going to get it?  We help you work out what you have to offer, the components of employability (knowledge, skills, attitude) and how you can use them to your advantage when  applying them in interviews, applications and digital networking. 
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These presentations can be tailored for years 10+ and all work towards asking two main questions: what do you want from life and how are you going to get it? There are three main components of employability (knowledge, skills and attitude) and we think that the trick for getting and holding down your ideal  career is the middle ground between what you love, what skills you have and what opportunities are available.  Push are here to help you through it, from searching for a part time job to forward planning for that dream career. Each of our workshops have our unique combination of stand-up comedy and the very latest education policy and can be tailored to your school, and can include any of the below:

• Selling yourself 
• Targeting  
• Interview skills 
• Job applications ​

• CV writing workshops
  
• Hard and soft skills 
• Networking on the net 
• Attitudes and behaviours

These workshops are suitable for year 10+ and each of them break down what studying is in order to work out how we can get better at it.  We offer specialised revision, assessment and exam strategy & skills workshops  using meta-cognition and The McKinsey Model all delivered through our funny and impartial style so you won't even realise it's been processed till we've left. ​

Our ​Study Skills workshops are suitable for year 10+ and they break down what studying is, why we study and the logic behind memory and how the brain learns. We can help your students improve their revision skills by applying the hear/see/do/teach model in their practice as well as by working out what type of learner they are and how to use it.  We can even help them keep their cool with assessment and exam strategy skills. Each of our workshops have our unique combination of stand-up comedy and the very latest education policy  and can be tailored to your school, and can include any of the below:​

• Study skills
• Why study?
• Metacognition 
• Memory techniques 
• Different types of learner 
• Hear/see/do/teach model​​

• Independent study 
• Exploring (research: making it fun) 
• Attitude 
• Assessments & exam strategy 
• Recall vs recognition
• Research skills
  

Moj Taylor, our Executive, often teams up with other moonlighting comedians such as Lorna Shaw, Ibrahim Sesay, Harriet Dyer, Keith Farnan and Trevor Lock. Why this selection of comedians? As well as being incredibly passionate about what we do at PUSH, they are all super-informed on employability and choices, as they often deliver PUSH presentations too. These interactive workshops on how to use comedy to develop soft skills are run by 2 comedians and designed for groups 10-25 people, for a half or preferably a whole day. The overall objective is not to develop the next comedy stars, but to help anyone develop self-confidence and resilience. We also want to help young people develop their wider soft skills such as initiative, problem-solving, communication and expressing ideas - which make an individual highly desirable for any job in any industry, particularly in an ever-changing technology-based world...where one's human-based skillsets (creativity, empathy, generating ideas) will be crucial to stand out from the crowd. Other techniques we explore in this framework:
- How to cope under pressure: breathing techniques, visualisation, mindfulness, mic technique, and interacting with an audience.
- Projection, diction and tone: how to keep people engaged in what you are saying.
- Pace, variation and movement: how to keep people focused on you, in the right way.
- How to write a story: a great skill for constructing any CV, cover letter or interview as a candidate is essentially picking relevant chapters of their own life story to express, under pressure, to an audience. On your request we can also involve our manager Aron Tennant, who moonlights as a screenwriter.

If you're keen on exploring how these workshops can inspire and benefit your learners, just ask@push.co.uk. We have a whole day's framework we've developed (hopefully ending with participants delivering a 2-5 minute set of their own to the audience). We treat each enquiry as a bespoke booking, and tailor our framework to exactly what you need, in the time you have available.

HOW TO BE FUNNY WITHOUT TELLING JOKES

PUSH's presenters (who moonlight as comedians) share tools learnt from years in writing, developing and performing comedy that can be applied in any walk of life, to any audience. This helps to create, develop and prevent ideas in any situation.

Careers-themed comedy gigs

If you'd like to book a comedy gig with a twist, our team of comedians run a unique careers event, packed full of individual stand up sets on what our comedians wish they'd known in school and university, balanced with some comedy sketches, improvisations, audience Q&A and panel discussions on career choices with the team. It's a funny, inspiring and informative careers event like no other, and we've already run events like this for universities like BCU, USW and Uni of Sussex.

PRESENTATION SKILLS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF STAND UP COMEDY

PUSH's presenters (who moonlight as comedians) share their experiences of years in live comedy and public speaking, to help you improve the way you present yourself, your storytelling and your ideas - whatever the audience.

A recent study shows that the thing employees fear more than anything (across a range of different topics) is delivering presentations. That's why the ability to make people laugh, to tell a story, and to express ideas becomes such a desirable skill in the workplace.

We want young people to develop the skill of expression of ideas, and to do it in a humorous way.

Why?

Well, neuroscientific research reveals that humour systematically activates the brain's dopamine reward system, and various cognitive studies show that dopamine is important for goal-oriented motivation and long-term memory.

And the motivation and memory works both ways: want your ideas to be truly heard and remembered by your work colleagues or clients? Well then, be an engaging storyteller, and add a touch of humour in the right places.

​Employability Through Improvisation

Our interactive improvisation workshops are a fast-paced, fun and practical introduction to soft skills for young people, to build their confidence, resilience and overall roundedness for an ever-adapting working environment.

These workshops have been specifically designed and are run by professional stand up comedian Lorna Shaw who is also an experienced actor, comedian and improviser. She trained in improv at London’s leading improv theatre, The Free Association, and regular performs with various improv teams. Lorna has performed improv at The Magnet Theatre in New York and on the Boom Chicago stage in Amsterdam and has trained with some of the alumni of leading improv theatres in the US including IO Chicago and Second City. Lorna has run improv workshops for a number of businesses and charities.

As well as improvising Lorna performs regularly on the stand-up circuit. Her work has been performed at the Soho Theatre and on BBC Radio 4. In 2018 Lorna was a Musical Comedy Awards finalist and shortlisted for the Funny Women Writing Award and her acting credits include Plebs (ITV2) and Newsjack (Radio 4).
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Through a mix of games, exercises and scene work the students will gain practical experience in thinking on their feet, effective communication, team work, accepting and celebrating failure, peer feedback, creativity and problem-solving.

One of the core principles of improvisation is risk and during the workshop students get the opportunity to rehearse real-life scenarios within the safety of a workshop environment with a seasoned professional improviser, and overcome their fear of failure before embarking on their journey into higher education and/or the workplace. 

Learning how saying ‘yes!’ (and developing a mindset of constant self-improvement and lifelong learning) can open doors to success, and make you stand out to employers and universities.

OUR CHARGES AND COSTS