Students discover many ways to find their career

Whether our students will enter the world of work at 16, 18, 21 or beyond, it’s never too early to start to get an understanding of what is needed. Our students have been busy this term, across all year groups, discovering what they need to succeed, and developing the skills that will empower them to reach their potential.

Apprenticeships

National Apprenticeships Week gave us the perfect opportunity for students to explore this exciting option for their future careers.

A visit to the UK Apprenticeship Fair enabled students to speak to apprenticeship providers alongside universities and colleges – showing the high quality of training on offer.

Listening to the speakers, events like this give students the information they need to make informed choices about their future.

Back at school, a lunchtime drop-in showed students the great range of apprenticeship routes into careers in the National Health Service. Miss Parkinson said, “Many of our students have ambitions to work in medicine, and this session offered a strong focus on just how many different roles there are they could enter.”

Learn to Earn

For 90 Year 9 students, Learn to Earn, organised by charity Young Enterprise, encouraged them to consider financial plans for the future. They also set goals and started to think about future study options.

The session offered a clearer understanding of the routes to jobs and careers that they will find engaging and rewarding.

Through hands on practical activities, the students explored personal skills and talents, career choices, recruitment, job interviews, tax and earnings, the cost of living, financial planning and budgeting.

Facebook HQ

Jobs in the digital market will be a major area of growth for years to come. Who better to inspire our students than Facebook, a global business worth more than $250bn.

Students visited their UK headquarters in London to investigate the careers available and the skills and qualifications they would need.

Putting the wind in their sales!

It is one thing to learn in a classroom, but something totally different to get real-world experience in running a business.

This is exactly what’s on offer to students through the Company Team programme, organised by Young Enterprise. ‘Team Green’ is our entry this year.

The five students have worked with a local businessman, learning about marketing, customers and brand identity. The team researched, manufactured and launched their own product, reusable produce bags aimed at cutting down plastic use.

The students demonstrated their entrepreneurial talents, selling to the public at the Trafford Centre, and even gaining customer feedback to help them improve their product further.

Year 10s to discover the world of work

At the end of June many students in Year 10 will begin a week of work experience at companies across Oldham. The students themselves take responsibility for finding their placement, contacting local companies to make the necessary arrangements in a broad range of job sectors.

We would like to thank all parents and carers who attended the ‘Get to Know Work Experience’ evening, which sought to explain all that this involves in planning and preparing.

We are also grateful to local companies and organisations who make the commitment to provide the students with worthwhile placements.

Amongst the employers who have got involved already this year are Heathcote pre school, Tesco, Burnley Brow primary school, and Stonefield St surgery.

In previous years our students have gained from broad choice of work experiences. These have included farming, child care, hairdressing, roles with Oldham Council, estate agency, and hotel work.

Inspired by great local employers

Another opportunity to escape the classroom inspired students from Year 9 as they visited the National Logistics Centre and Ultimate Products, both based in Oldham.

Seeing how a real workplace operates is helping to develop the students’ awareness of health and safety, work development, team working and customer service.

Former students share their personal career paths

We had the pleasure of welcoming former students Denver Cooper and Leah Dunn into school, where they spoke to students about gaining key employability skills.

The opportunity to hear from young people who have been in the same situation as our students helped them to relate to what they were hearing.

If you are a past student of The Radclyffe School and would like to be a member of our alumni project, please sign up at futurefirst.org.uk