Women of the Future at Aviva HQ

Sixth Former Tilly writes about her brilliant experience at the Women of the Future conference in January 2019:

"Last month, 10 lower sixth girls were lucky enough to attend the Women of the Future conference at the Aviva HQ in London.

Upon arrival we were taken into the auditorium, which boasts the biggest curved screen in Europe, where we watched a short video about the company and its main product, insurance. Then we were given the chance to look around one of the offices, which had a productive yet calm atmosphere with amazing views of the city, and one of the break rooms, featuring plenty of food options and private pods for meetings.

Photo credit: proAV

After our tour we were taken to a room towards the top of the building, overlooking the Gherkin. Here we listened to four female Aviva employees who told us all about their respective jobs at Aviva and what it was like to work for such a global corporate company, along with the degrees they studied and how previous employment led them to their current jobs.

The leader of the Women of the Future organisation Pinky Lilani concluded the morning with the inspiring story of one young girl who has benefited massively from entering herself into the Women of the Future awards a few years ago, which she went on to win.

Photo credit: proAV

Finally, the Aviva caterers provided a buffet lunch, during which we had the opportunity to network with and ask questions of the four speakers, amongst other female Aviva employees and members of Women of the Future.

All of us came away having had an enjoyable and highly valuable day. The main message that the speakers and Pinky Lilani gave us was to be open minded in your career, say yes to every opportunity and to be kind, advice that everyone should take.

Careers & Higher Education Manager and Assistant Head of Sixth Form Dr Verney commented, 

"The girls came away enthused and energised by the whole experience. They all commented that they had learnt a huge amount about the sector and also about roles and opportunities that they had not been aware of at the start of the day. I was incredibly impressed by the intelligent and insightful questions posed by the girls during the visit, they were a pleasure to accompany and a credit to the school."

Tilly Slater