Last week (w/c Monday 4 March) was National Careers Week, a one-week celebration of careers guidance and resources in education across the UK. At Shiplake, it was our Year 12 pupils who were looking forward with the dedicated Futures Day however, on Tuesday 5 March, there was a chance for all pupils to think about careers with our Focus on Careers Day.
On Focus on Careers Day, our teachers spent a short time at the start of their lessons talking about careers that their subject could lead to. For our younger pupils who had perhaps not yet started to consider future options, it was a great way to get the ball rolling in a relaxed and informal manner. In music, Mr Jones spoke about he was an editor for a music publishing company while Mr Curran went into detail about the many other courses and roles available to music students.
In science, Dr Chare spoke about the future opportunities in science such as artificial gene science and artificial hormones. With her Year 7 pupils, Miss Griffiths explored the many career paths that drama has to offer and in a Year 12 business lesson, Mrs Hill’s pupils mind-mapped possible business career paths and the skills required for them.
Thursday 7 March was Futures Day for our Year 12 pupils – a day where all Year 12 pupils were off-timetable engaging in a number of sessions and activities to discover what their options are for life after Shiplake. From occupation and life presentations to speed networking with professionals, there was plenty for our pupils to consider for their future.
The day began with a presentation from Royal Holloway University on student finance. This gave our pupils the opportunity to discover and learn more about finance options at university including loans, scholarships and grants. Following this, the Year 12s were split into groups before heading off for a first carousel of talks. These included talks on applying to and studying at the University of Cambridge and Oxford, as well as talks on careers in law, hospitality, technology, and design respectively. The second carousel of talks included presentations on studying in the USA, taking a Gap Year, and pursuing a career in finance or music/media.
In the final session of the morning, we welcomed back Old Viking, Johnny Hutchins (21S) to deliver a talk on apprenticeships. Johnny is currently in his second year of completing a level 7 ATT/CTA apprenticeship with BDO LLP in his session with our Year 12s, provided an in-depth talk about what apprenticeships are like, what they offer, and how they are different to studying a degree at university.
In the afternoon, we welcomed back more Old Vikings – 2023 leavers P Kay, Lewis O’Doneghue, Esme Young, Max Noakes, and Zac Morrison, in addition to 2022 leaver Henry Kunzig – to talk about their year/s after Shiplake. This included shedding light on the university experience from flat sharing to lectures to nightlife. The discussion was extremely open to give our Year 12 pupils an honest and real insight into life at university or just life in general after Shiplake.
Futures Day then concluded with a ‘Speed Networking’ event. Here, in their small groups, the pupils had the opportunity to talk to professionals from multiple fields such as marketing, medicine and finance. To add to the ‘speed’ element, groups had seven minutes with each professional before rotating. It was great to welcome back another Old Viking for this – Nick Quirke (00B) - to talk about his work as an artist.
Speaking after National Careers Week, Head of Careers - Mrs Rapple Moore – said the following:
‘I was delighted that we were able to celebrate National Careers Week in various ways last week. The 'Focus on Careers' day on Tuesday was very valuable, with all teachers talking to their classes about careers in their subject throughout the day, and the 'Futures Day' on Thursday for Year 12 was extremely well received. Students heard from industry professionals across the board in a series of talks and interviews, culminating in our annual Speed Networking Session, which, as ever, was a real hit with pupils and visitors alike. It is so important for our pupils to be exposed to professionals from a wide variety of fields to help them see the multitude of careers that could be open to them and hopefully give them aspirations to aim for in the future.’
Thank you to everyone who helped with the running of the week, especially to those who visited the school to talk and present to our Year 12 pupils. We hope that the experience proves to be a useful one for our Year 12 pupils when considering their options for the future!
