Last Wednesday 19th March we held our biennial Careers Fair for students in Years 9-13. Students could attend talks (and new for 2025, a live demonstration), and visit stalls in the Library/LRC and Lees Hall representing a wide range of sectors and organisations. We had several universities present including Glasgow, Sheffield, Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Warwick along with Confetti, a specialist creative industry institute and part of Nottingham Trent University. There were also organisations represented who offer Apprenticeships and Apprentices that our students could speak to. Delegates included parents, former parents, external companies and organisations; we were particularly pleased to welcome over 20 Sutton High School alumnae who were able to share their experiences of graduate schemes with Atkins and Britvic, work in the Civil Service, studying for a PhD and being a degree apprentice.
Students have fed back that there were so many people and so many interesting jobs andenjoyed getting to talk about Apprenticeships, talking to universities, speaking to new people and exploring potential career paths that I didn’t consider before and commented that there are a lot more job opportunities than I thought. Students discoveredhow AI is changing people’s jobs, that only certain farmers have to wake up early, what the civil service is, what different unis offer and how they assess your work, the range of roles in a department, how diverse the courses and degrees you can take are and about different apprenticeships.
We are grateful to all our delegates for taking the time to attend our Careers Fair and sharing their time, experience and knowledge with our students.
If you are interested in contributing to our next Careers Fair or to our wider Careers Programme then please do get in touch with Mrs Lenaghan, Head of Careers via, careers@sutton.gdst.net
Year 9 students participated in a financial awareness and careers activity last Thursday 20th March, which involved thinking about their future aspirations, finding out how much things cost and considering what they need to do to get there, led by Karen Kimura, Careers & Employability Manager at Trust and Mrs Lenaghan. We were also delighted to be joined by five volunteers from BP who sponsor a charity called Girls in Data which aims to inspire and normalise a career in data to girls from 5-18 years old through informing, exposing and dispelling the myths about the industry. Students learnt about their different job roles which included a meteorologist, and the different routes they took to get where they are today which included both university and apprenticeship pathways. Students were then able to dive into the world of data as the BP volunteers led them in a trading game where students were put in charge of trading and making money. The game revealed how important analytics and data are in making decisions and how powerful data can be in real-world scenarios, the winning teams won many millions!
Year 8 Take Our Daughter to Work, Wednesday 19th March
Students in Year 8 prepared for Take Our Daughter to Work in PSR lessons and were given access to a booklet in which they could record what they did and their reflections of the workplace they were in. Students went to a range of organisations covering many sectors including education, finance, heritage, healthcare, law, IT and journalism; pictured is Jessica who went to the Houses of Parliament and MOD with her Dad. Students will now share their experiences in the form of a short speech to the class, which will not only enable them to develop presenting and communication skills but will also give all students insight into many different workplaces. Experiences of workplaces help students develop an understanding of different career pathways and opportunities, learn about and grow their life and employability skills and gives some insight into what it is like to be in an adult environment.
