Year 9 learners at Bishopston Comprehensive School have been putting their persuasive communication skills to the test through a Careers Wales organised day, designed to bring classroom learning to life.
The Persuasive Communication Challenge Day connected English curriculum learning with real workplace practice, giving learners the opportunity to hear directly from employers about how communication, persuasion and influence are used across a wide range of careers.
Working alongside Careers Wales, the school developed an employer-led experience to help learners see how persuasive communication moves beyond the classroom. Employers shared their own career journeys and examples of how they use communication to present ideas, respond to concerns, influence decisions and build trust at work.
Each employer then set learners a realistic workplace-inspired challenge, which teams developed further during three follow-up English lessons.
English Teacher Hayley Mouruzzi said the combination of employer input and authentic tasks helped learners see the relevance of their classroom learning, resulting in “confident, professional and quality responses” from Year 9 learners.
Challenges covered sectors including cyber safety, wellbeing, construction, community design, public safety and recruitment, giving learners the opportunity to apply the same core communication skills in very different professional contexts.
Learners were encouraged to consider their audience and purpose, use persuasive language, respond to opposing viewpoints and finish with a clear call to action.
The results showed how effectively they could transfer these techniques into realistic situations. Cyber-safety teams created campaigns highlighting scam warning signs, including the message “Think Before You Tap,” while learners responding to a South Wales Police challenge challenged perceptions around reporting concerns with the message “Be an upstander, not a bystander.”
Other teams developed school wellbeing proposals, persuasive community letters and construction concepts, while recruitment teams created professional teaching assistant adverts identifying qualities including patience, teamwork and organisation.
Across the project, learners produced campaigns, speeches, proposals, design ideas and recruitment materials, demonstrating creativity, problem-solving and growing confidence.
The teacher review also identified clear progression in learners’ use of persuasive techniques, including stronger openings, greater audience awareness, consideration of counterarguments and clearer calls to action.
Bobbie Dorward, Careers Wales Business Engagement Adviser, said:
“The range and quality of the responses showed not only stronger persuasive communication, but also creativity, teamwork and growing confidence. Learners were using their skills to respond to real workplace and community challenges rather than completing an exercise in isolation.”
By combining curriculum learning with direct employer engagement, the project strengthened the school’s Careers and the World of Work provision while helping learners recognise how the communication skills they develop in school are used across a broad range of future careers.
