Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
This week we are looking at Apprenticeships in preparation for National Apprenticeship Week 10th-17th February.
Mrs Hart and Miss Johnson who make up the careers team in school have organised some events to support apprenticeship week. Last Friday, Year 8 students gave their full attention to Elizabeth Coarse, our enterprise advisor, and our guest panel,
- Emma Cantrell MBEwho was a last-minute stand-in, and is the founder of First Days Children’s Charity in Wokingham. She spoke about her dreams of working in politics in Westminster, to pivoting towards the charity sector, to receiving an MBE for her work
- Susannah Stewart– Business owner – ‘Salty Olive’. She spoke about wanting to be a zoologist, to owning a restaurant via a career in airlines and tech.
- Katie Neck– Founder, Sustained Futures. She spoke about working in fashion, to Formula 1, to becoming a startup founder in sustainability delivering green skills.
Mrs Hart summed up the key advice to Year 8, from the panel as
- Watch out for the hoovers and radiators in your life. We want our students to be radiators!
- Attitude is everything
- Be curious and show up ready to learn
- Don’t be shy about wanting to make money
- It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of you, good or bad. What matters is that you are pleased with yourself and the choices you make, the effort you put in or how much you value who you are and what you’ve done.
Mrs Hart said ‘Every year, the students blow me away with their thoughtful questions and their ability to stand up in front of their entire year group to ask them’. Miss Johnson, careers assistant, has sent out a survey to the Year 8 students about the event. Here are some responses below.
- Your dream job can change over time
- I learnt that you do not have to stick with your original career plans.
- It takes a lot of time and effort into creating a business and it may not start off amazing follow what your heart says
- Key vocabulary in career, the mindset needed to approach our future and that we can choose whatever we want to do in life
- To never give up
- To always believe in yourself
- Never underestimate yourself
- That no matter how old you are you can always turn to something you love and still make a living out of it
- It’s important to look at someone’s character when hiring.
- To stay true to yourself
This week, the assemblies and tutor time have focussed on Apprenticeships. We have had speakers from Johnson&Johnson, KPMG, Balfour Beatty and The Army. Thanks to Mrs Hart and Miss Johnson for organising all the events and of course to our visitors for coming in to speak about careers.
I am an advocate of apprenticeships as my daughter Lucy, after A levels in geography, drama and English took up a Level 3 (equivalent to A level) apprenticeship with the BBC in radio production, declining her place at University of Birmingham to study English and Drama. That was eight years ago and at the time I was a bit unsure of the route, but Lucy wanted to learn on the job with experts and she liked being busy. Lucy’s apprenticeship was for three years; she studied for a level 3 BTEC at Wembley college alongside learning many skills on the job…working for BBC Radio 1X and 1. Lucy had a good social life with the other apprentices who started at the BBC at the same time and of similar age so didn’t seem to miss out on this aspect of university life. She now works as a creative director in the music and film industry in London and has no student debt! The apprenticeship was a brilliant start to her career, which has not been hampered by not having a degree.
Rachel, my youngest, is taking her A levels in the summer. She has applied to university, to do geography, but like Lucy, she is also applying for apprenticeships….a degree (level 6) apprenticeship in project management. These are mostly four years long and if Rachel is successful, she will come out with a degree, alongside hands-on practical experience as well as no debt. Rachel is applying to engineering firms, as well as the BBC, Vodafone and Amazon. The government apprenticeship website is very good for advertising all the opportunities. The most popular sectors are engineering, business, finance and accounting, IT and law.
Rachel and Lucy’s brothers went to university, and this was the right choice for them…. Joe studied Town Planning at Sheffield Uni and Luke is in his sixth out of seven years of studying Architecture. He did his undergraduate at University of Liverpool and is now in London completing his Masters’. I would say from my experience as a parent, applying for an apprenticeship is tougher than applying to university for sure –it is way more competitive. There are obviously less places on offer compared to university courses and the growing popularity of degree apprenticeships reflects their appeal as debt free alternatives to university, providing practical experience and strong career prospects.
Over the last few months, Rachel has had to complete online applications with questions such as ‘Why are you interested in this apprenticeship’, ‘How have your skills and education relevant to this apprenticeship’, ‘Why would you like to work for XXXX’, ‘Is there anything else that excites you about the apprenticeship?’. The next round was a set of online situational judgement tests …..gauging how Rachel responds to workplace scenarios and she has had to do a couple of numerical and verbal reasoning tests too. This was followed by an online interview…where she was given the question, had 10 mins to prepare and then she had to record herself answering the question. There were usually three questions, one about skills, one about the values of the company and one about why she is applying for the apprenticeship. Rachel is now waiting to hear whether she has got through to the next round – the fourth round…. fingers crossed!!
Why am I telling you all of this…..well as we approach national apprenticeship week and as parents I want to give you a heads up that apprenticeships, whether level 2,3 or degree level are an absolutely viable alternative to college or university courses.
The selection process is very robust and to prepare your daughter/son it is very important they have experiences in life they can draw upon during interviews to demonstrate skills which are so important in the workplace; for example, initiative, bringing on others, teaching someone something, having to tell someone they were wrong, how to deal with kickback, problem solving, thinking creatively and communication. Your daughter/son can develop these skills through getting involved in school clubs, competitions, charity events, student council, being a prefect and out of school joining clubs such as scouts or cadets and when they are old enough taking up a part time job or volunteering as well as interacting with family and friends. For the BBC interview, Lucy had to give an example of when she had to teach something to someone….she explained she taught my aunt how to text!
The economy is pretty stagnant right now ….hopefully when your daughters start to apply for level 2,3 or degree apprenticeships or graduate jobs things will be more prosperous but in the meantime, please encourage your daughter to take up opportunities/experiences and it would be great if you could go through the top tips above from the panel and the Year 8 students. It is always good to be thinking of the next stage or even the stage after that in life!
Thanks again to Mrs Hart, Miss Johnson and the speakers from the various companies who have been in school this week.
Anne Kennedy
Co-Headteacher