An accountancy and business advisory firm has handed a group of young people a virtual insight into their future career, after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to postpone its usual work experience programme.

Kendal-based MHA Moore and Smalley has a long tradition of inviting school and college leavers into its offices for a week or two of work experience over the summer holidays.

However, this year it invited them to take part in a virtual work experience session, chatting to employees at different stages of their career and quizzing them about what working life at the firm is like.

HR director Rebecca Coombes said: “We’ve been using video conferencing in our business for the last few years and we’ve all seen how quickly the workplace has adjusted to online meetings in recent months, so we decided to take our work experience offering online for the day.

“It’s been a great initiative, not just for the young people themselves, but also an enjoyable experience for our team members who were once in their shoes and got the chance to give something back.

"We’re hopeful of being able to offer work experience in an office setting again in the not too distant future, but we also intend to make online work experience a wider part of our recruitment process.”

Candidates were selected from the hundreds of CVs and letters the firm receives each year from school leavers, as well as additional applications for the online event.