Company marks IWD with special sessions

Twenty-two students from various classes at the Parkinson Memorial School had an exciting opportunity when they got to visit the offices of Goddard Enterprises Ltd (GEL) to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023. 

The students were selected by Guidance Counsellor Kara Maynard, who accompanied the girls on the outing. They were collected by a coach and transported to the GEL offices at 11 a.m. for various group sessions with the GEL employees and executives. 

“We have girls here today from age eleven, right up to 16-year-olds. I chose them because of their different levels of self-confidence and self-esteem. I want them to experience meeting with older positive role models and to understand the dynamics of working together and building positive relationships with other girls,” stated the Guidance Counsellor. 

“Normally Goddard will do this with senior students, but I wanted to include others from the junior school to expose them to the opportunity early and to get them to feel better about themselves, so that a core of students would benefit from the sessions and they in turn can influence others in their respective year groups.”

She explained that they chose five students from the five year-groups in the school. Three students were unable to attend.    

Head Office People Coordinator Valerie Lovell welcomed the students when they arrived at GEL. Deborah Elcock of the Payroll Department led a group discussion on Gender Equity vs. Equality. The students were then divided into groups and assigned to different departments to discuss various topics. 

In the Accounts department, students discussed anger management and how to deal with certain situations. The members of the Manufacturing department gave the girls a short quiz on social media content and then discussed the answers revealing what they should or should not post on social media. 

Students who joined the Legal department discussed the gifts and attributes that everyone is given and how to use them effectively. The group that was entertained by the Admin department discussed how to set goals and objectives and to visualize their dreams and share those dreams as they work towards them.

After being served a sumptuous lunch prepared by the Goddard Catering Group, the girls came together to share what they had learnt during the visit in a session led by Group Chief Financial Officer Natasha Small. 

“We are happy to share International Women’s Day with students of the Parkinson School every year,” stated Valerie Lovell. “We adopted the school a few years ago and we try to come up with different, meaningful activities to do with the students that would assist them in their life’s journey,” she added. 

In past years, GEL has donated books written by female authors for IWD. Staff members have also visited the school on that day to deliver talks to the girls. (PR)