Careers Fair at Winston
On Wednesday 16th November we held our annual
careers fair with over 1000 students across the whole school attending, as well
as a record number of parents and carers. We were delighted that our
exhibitors represented a broad range of sectors including healthcare,
construction, conservation, wellbeing, education, sport, arts, culture and
science to name a few.
Career is your journey through life, learning and work and
representing these components were colleges, universities, charities,
apprenticeship providers, companies, employers, employees, entrepreneurs and
the self-employed.
We have a very supportive community who understand the
importance of careers education and are willing to give their time to help
raise awareness and knowledge among the next generation. Our exhibitors
included parents, alumni, our staff and local businesses. They were able
to share information about future pathways as well as their own experiences and
roles.
Students were able to practice the Winston competencies and
skills that are key to their future career, such as being open-minded,
questioning and listening. They planned for the event in advance, by
doing activities in form time and during class, to identify exhibitors they
might like to find out more about, as well as considering their strengths and
skills.
Our exhibitors shared the top skills they use in their
roles, to help our students understand their importance and they were a good
topic of discussion.
Some of our pupils had a work experience day in the school,
by helping with the smooth running of the fair, escorting exhibitors around the
site, assisting them with setting up their stalls, taking orders and serving
refreshments and preparing discovery space for the exhibitors’ lunch. Our barista students experienced a busy
service, preparing and serving drinks all day for around 60 visitors.
Exhibitors had lunch in our Discovery Space building and
were able to see our planetarium in action.
Employers said that they thought that the overall engagement
with the students was good, that they had some great questions and that the
student helpers were amazing.
Students comments include:
“I learnt what other careers are available”
“You get a wider perspective of the variety of
careers and education options as a student”
“I learnt how to become an accountant and a
lawyer”
“The people hosting the stands were very
informative which was really useful, especially when it comes to considering
what you want to do after Winston. For instance, I got a lot of information
from Woking College with regards to A-Levels.”
“It showed me different options of pathways
out of school”
“I found it useful as it’s rarely that we can ask them these questions”
“Being able to explore different and unique
career opportunities that I hadn't known of/considered before”
Overall, it was a very successful day, which we are planning
to organise again next year. If you would like to support our careers
programme, wherever you are in your career journey, we would welcome you to our
community. Please contact our careers department on careers@wcsc.org.uk.
