June 16th 2017
Advice and talks on a broad range of careers
As part of the Year 8 post Common Entrance exam programme this year, I thought it would be useful to put together a careers day for the boys. This may seem quite early in their career but next year they will be making GCSE choices and it’s good to get them thinking about such things.
The morning session was a series of workshops, led by Inspiring Futures, part of the GTI group. Michael Parker-Cook got the boys thinking about key skills and personal attributes needed for the world of employment, rather than specific subjects. They investigated job families and looked at how various areas of employment can be linked and merged.
The boys then listened to two very interesting talks. The first was by Captain Dave Webber, a helicopter pilot who has served in the RAF, flown for the police and for the air ambulance. The second talk was from Jeremy Laming, the founder of a number of open water swimming companies, including Henley Swim.
The afternoon was spent attending a number of short talks of the boys choosing. They could have gone to a talk about the army, the ministry of defence, architecture, piloting for BA, being a vet, the music industry or finance.
Finally, the day was summarised by Miss Roberts and Mr Adrian Wood who was a founder of GTI, a leading careers advice company that delivers careers advice to graduates and also advises companies about what they should be looking for in an employee.
The boys listened incredibly well all day and were fully engaged in the various talks they attended. I'd even go as far as to say they really enjoyed it!
I would like to say a very big thank you to all those people who gave up their time to come in and talk to the boys about their careers. We are very grateful to you as it really helped make the day!
