Careers education has become the heart of what we do
Progression into the workplace and work experience and mentoring are not a privilege for the few. They should be a right for the many – so that students, regardless of background, can see how what they learn at school is used within our workplaces and can help them to progress.
Executive Principal Nick Soar is a passionate advocate of a careers rich school experience. He said: “Careers education has become the heart of what we do. We’ve brought in speakers from aerospace engineering, banking, medicine, drama, computing. The students love it. They ask endless questions and you can see it really brings home to them what they need to do to succeed in the workplace. The pupils value the time given to explore in a deeper way professionals who are using the knowledge they are learning within the classroom”
As an academy, we have made great strides in raising our attainment levels and once again this year we have seen record numbers of students excel in their examinations.
The corporate partnerships we have and the Harris Experience will help provide our students with greater levels of aspiration and, just as importantly, give them the confidence and tools to take the first steps in their chosen careers and so achieve even greater success.
Fourteen is the crucial age at which career talks delivered at school – even short, hour-long sessions – will have the biggest impact on a pupil’s future earnings, analysis has shown.
A study by the charity 'Education and Employers' argues that young people could be earning an additional £2,000 by their mid-20s simply by being exposed to more careers talks.
It concludes that the earnings boost is greatest where pupils had talks at the age of 14 and found them “very helpful”. A pupil who experienced six such talks could expect to earn £2,000 more in today’s money by the age of 26.
In fact, overall earnings at age 26 were higher for every effective career talk experienced at ages 14 and 15.
