Over the past few weeks some of our Year 11 pupils have visited Dudley College. They have had a tour of the campuses, met with staff and been offered career workshops to support their future pathways.

This has been a really good experience for our pupils and has been supported by the team at Dudley College.

Pupils were able to take up the opportunity to look at the subjects on offer and discuss chosen subjects in more detail to support their knowledge and understanding of the pathway options available to them.

Students from Year 10 and 11 were exposed to careers with guest speakers from The Royal Navy and an Architect.

The skills and qualifications for these career pathways were discussed, as well as what these careers entailed. Presentations were wrapped up with questions asked by the students who were interested in these fields of work.

Letty (Y11) said, “the assembly went well. I really enjoyed having different points of view in the workplace from different jobs. This helped me to think hard about my career when I leave school and gives me a better idea of what I want to do.”

Sophie (Y11) said, “Inspiring and enlightening to hear different aspects of these careers. It breaks down the stereotypical barriers around these kinds of jobs.”

“As I am aspiring to be an architect, it was really useful. I learnt a lot about different types of roles and how to get there,” Natalia (Y10) said.

Yesterday employers came into the school for a “Guess My Job” careers event. 

Pupils were tasked with identifying which employer (by appearance alone) matched which named career. 

Pupils learnt to never judge a book by its cover as St Edmund’s Catholic Academy try to tackle stereotyping people in particular roles. They were very engaged and asked lots of interesting questions to help them better understand each job role.

Yesterday  we were lucky to have Fútbol Lingo come to visit us to discuss the importance of languages when working in the sports industry. Pupils listened to Pierce Kiembi, a YDP coach, discussing his career in football and his journey through language learning, from not understanding the importance of languages to getting ahead in his career thanks to learning languages.

We were invited to consider the role that languages play in everyday life in the sports industry and Pierce discussed the differing positions that needed languages from player level, to managers and coaches, all the way through to staff in the stadiums to journalists and player liaison officers.

We learnt that ‘the more you learn, the more you earn’ and how FIFA as an international federation requires all its employees to speak at least 2 languages just to be considered for any role. 

Being a linguist makes you highly sought after in the job market and it was great to see our pupils learning the significance of this.

Today the history department delivered a lesson on Remembrance to year 7 students to honour those who served to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life.

A member of the British Army also came along to give students an insight into the potential career opportunities within the service.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the interactive army presentation and left with a positive experience of opportunities in the Armed Forces.

On Friday 20th October, a group of students from Year 10 and Year 11 attended a Careers Fair at Dunstall Racecourse to find out more information from employers and educational providers in our region.

Exhibitors ranged from universities, colleges and specialist companies, to apprenticeship providers such as the local authority, all providing opportunities for people aged 16 and older who may have a wide range of qualifications.

This was a good opportunity for them to explore possible future pathways and to clarify options, even if they were not sure what they wanted to do after Year 11. We were fortunate with our booking slot as it was the end of the day. This allowed us good access to all of the organisation as there were fewer people present.

All of the students were excellent ambassadors for the school and many spoke confidently to the exhibitors. Everyone who attended thought it was useful.

Mr White, one of the accompanying members of staff, thought we were fortunate that such an event had been organised and that he found some useful information as well.

One pupil said “I’m really glad I spoke with them because it reassured me about the grades I need for the course.”

Another pupil said “There was some good information about training to work in cyber security.”

Photo L-R: Daniyal. Archie, Binyameen, Sarnelli