Star Track

You remember Maggie Philbin. She was the popular Maggie in the 1980s, presenting Swap Shop, marrying Keith Chegwin, having a No.15 hit single with Keith Chegwin, divorcing Keith Chegwin and then presenting Tomorrow’s World. In the pre-Vorderman era, Maggie was the girl TV ran to when it needed a brainy, but photogenic, female.

Well, Maggie’s just joined forces with Network Rail to help dispel myths about working in IT and encourage more girls to pursue a tech-related career.

Specifically, she’s helping to launch the second year of the Could IT Be You? competition for girls, which was set up in 2013 by the company’s chief information officer, Susan Cooklin, after Cooklin raised concerns about the rapid slide in the number of women entering the UK’s IT sector. (Reminds us of The Dave Rule over in Silicon Valley.)

According to the press release, the Could IT Be You? competition is open to girls aged 16-18 and asks them to explain how technology can improve their lives and make things better. The winner gets their first year of university fees paid for by Network Rail, and for three runners up there’s two weeks paid work experience and mentoring with the company’s IT team.

Maggie also founded TeenTech, an organisation which runs one-day events to help young teenagers see the wide range of career possibilities in Science, Engineering and Technology.

Anyway, this got us thinking. Which other celebs might be brought out of the where-are-they-now cupboard and put to good effect in recruitment?

David Jason, in Del Trotter guise, could probably put in a good shift for the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Barbara Windsor could probably do something for nursing. The ghost of Arthur Lowe’s Captain Mainwaring could improve the image of banking, returning to it the respect it had before ‘stupid boys’ started gambling all our money away.

And what about the Tesco Finance department, who appear to have a few senior vacancies at the moment? Who better to represent their employer brand than poor Arthur Fowler, the EastEnders patriarch who ‘miscalculated’ the Christmas Club money?

About the author

Andrew Baird

Andrew is the CEO of HRville. He is also Employer Brand Director of Blackbridge Communications, Editorial Director of Professionals in Law and an associate of The Smarty Train. Previously, he was the MD of TCS Advertising.