National Careers Week 2020 started at WVC weeks ago with preparations to hold careers events for as many of our students and feeder primary students as possible. During assembly and form, all students took part in careers activities that linked nicely to our half term theme of Society.
Staff were engaged by filling in ‘door plaques’ which talked about their career journey, not all were always teachers! This came as a surprise to some students and gave a real talking point to how a career path was very rarely a straight line and a wealth of unrecognised experience was available for students to consider.
On Tuesday, we welcomed Alumni and local employers to take part in a Careers Fair. This initially was for our Year 8 students and then we welcomed all of our feeder primary Year 6 students. Students had the opportunity to move between employers and ask questions about their roles, career journey and present employer.
We also constructed a selfie booth so that the primaries could have photos from the event showing ‘When I grow up I want to be…’ to talk about back at their own schools.
The feedback from employers with both of these sessions was that the students were ‘engaged and interested’. The primary school students had not experienced an event like this before and it is hoped that the transition to secondary school will seem less daunting.
We welcomed Form the Future to work with our Year 7 students on ‘What’s My Line’, an activity where students guess what an employer does by asking questions. The range of employers who engaged in this event was great and students had to guess a Hydro Engineer and a Software Designer.
Wednesday saw our Year 10 take part in a Careers Skills Day. We were very fortunate in that Alumni, employers and representatives from Cambridge University and AIM Apprenticeships were able to give up their time to interact with students for the day. ‘How to Make an Impression’ got students talking to each other and learning skills to engage with employers to impress in an interview situation.
In ‘World of Work’ sessions, our Alumni worked with students telling them about their career paths and how the decisions they made affected their future. Interview Skills and CV Writing were also an important part of the day.
The day finished off with talks about apprenticeship and university routes to careers. We are grateful for all contributions from employers, Alumni and training providers and know that they have started to sow the seeds of aspiration for our students, a great way to participate in National Careers Week.
Press release from Witchford Village College
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