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Careers Power Day 2024
Miss Day sent this report:
Year 7 – Business Enterprise Day
Year 7 worked in small groups to create a product linked to the theme of ‘James and The Giant Peach’ that could be produced and sold around the time of the school production. Students had to assign themselves different job roles and complete the designated tasks under the job role which they had chosen. Students were given a design brief and had to complete the following:
- A realistic product to market
- Be achievable to make in school/in a
short space of time
- A product that required little financial
or external investment
- Generate the most profit
The ideas were creative and original, and students enjoyed taking part in this day and exploring different jobs that linked to the business world.
Year 8 – The Wedding Planner
Year 8 were given a tender to complete whereby they had to plan a wedding for a ‘Celebrity Couple’, the aim of the task was to promote their enterprise skills, through taking on the role of a ‘wedding planner’ they gained experience in understanding the factors involved in calculating the prices of goods and services, the tender aims to highlight the importance of fixed costs, raw materials, and wages, and introduced other factors such as transport and profit.
Year 9 – STEM Day
Year 9 students were excited to be a part of a ‘STEM’ day. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in an educational context. STEM related learning is important in schools, as it provides an opportunity for students to learn about topics and disciplines that will serve them well in later life. Students were able to see the benefits of studying STEM, such as understanding critical thinking, building creativity to lead to innovations and developing problem solving skills. The skills learned during STEM study have real world application and can be useful in any field of work. This year we were able to welcome a variety of different groups of people into the school, who delivered sessions on the following topics:
- Hanoi Towers
- Pfizer
- Solar Power EV’s
- Rochester Bridge
- Optical Fibres
- STAAR
- Civil Engineering
- Active Engineering
Students really enjoyed the day, we hope that it gave students a taster of some areas that they might like to explore further and possible career aspirations for the future.
Year 10 – Creative Industries Challenge
Year 10 embarked on a ‘Creative Industries’ session, this involved students working in groups of eight to complete the following challenge:
- Design Challenge
- Bristol University Robotics Task, this involved students designing a robot to solve one of the following areas:
- A search and rescue robot
- A environmental monitoring robot
- A delivery robot
The students worked incredibly hard throughout the day and the work they produced was outstanding. It was a brilliant day that allowed students to explore an array of skills, challenge themselves and see what it might be like to work in a number of creative industries, there were strong links made to careers in Business, Marketing, Media, Art, Fashion, Textiles, Computer Science and Geography.
Year 11 & 12 Careers Power Day
Year 11 and 12 spent the day thinking, researching and preparing for their life after secondary school, whether this is undertaking a degree, apprenticeship programme, entering the world of work or preparing for a gap or study year abroad. Students in Year 11 spent the morning assessing the various skills and characteristics that they would need to effectively plan and part take in an interview, both virtually and face to face, this included discussions around eye contact, dress code and interview etiquette, they also had some time to complete some psychometric tests, which is a challenging task! Students also practised answering common interview questions, memorising short introductions about themselves, and either wrote or update their CVs.
Year 12, ‘A Star Future Studying Abroad’ organisation delivered a presentation alongside alumni students who spoke about ‘Employability Skills’ and a university talking about about ‘University Life’. Gap year presentations took place outlining it as a time to develop skills before taking the next steps in education or career. Students explored why a gap year or study abroad could be a good route to take; how it can develop them as a person and what skills they needed to ascertain to get into certain careers. Students also learnt how to recognise if a company is ‘good’ to work for, by studying employers' profiles and discussing them. For example, do they want future employers to be inclusive, ambitious or supportive? Hopefully they were able to help answer the following questions about themselves:
- What do they want to be
- What are their aspirations.
- What do they want to accomplish.
- How do they become who they want to be.
In the afternoon both year groups attended a Careers Fair, there were over 40 different organisations, employers, universities and apprenticeship companies there. It was a great opportunity for students to find out more about all of these options and speak to specialists who gave them advice, guidance and useful links for future career planning and applications. Students were extremely engaged and spoke to the various organisations that appealed to them, helping them to consider their next steps, and discover the routes they could take to achieve what they want to do following Sixth Form.
A few organisations that attended the event are:
- Ship Safe Training Group
- Therapy Partners
- Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust NHS
- Mepa College
- Hazlitt Theatre
- RAF
- Whitecode Consulting LTD
- Copia Digital
- Framestore
- FC Environment
- Brachers LLP
- 10 Universities and Colleges
