Leamington and Warwick Living Mar - Apr 2020

The importance of preparing
students for the workplace
Dr Joseph Spence, head of Dulwich College, discusses the value
careers-based workshops can bring to independent schools and
their state school partners...
Careers education is an important
element of a school’s provision, and
a service one cannot introduce to
pupils too early. Prospective parents,
even of 11‐year‐olds, are asking far
more questions than they used to
about how we are preparing children
for the workplace of the future. This is
inevitable given all of the rhetoric about
the percentage of jobs not yet created
into which our pupils will move, and the
fact that they will likely have multiple
careers, possibly across many countries
or continents, over the course of long
working lives.
Networking events focused on particular
professions or industries have proven
immensely popular. These bring together
former pupils and current and past
parents, alongside pupils from both
independent and state schools.
However, it is also useful to look for
ways older pupils can deliver light‐touch
advice to their younger peers at partner
schools. As co‐director of the Southwark
Schools Learning Partnership, I have
been delighted in recent years to be able
to encourage a hub of careers advisers
from a good number of our 16 schools
(12 state schools and four independent
schools) to share best practice between
schools and across the sectors. Latterly,
we have had our own students help focus
the minds of younger pupils at a partner
school on potential university applications
and the world of careers.
Last June, a group of Year 10 students
from City Heights E‐ACT Academy
in South East London had a careers
workshop with our careers adviser
at Dulwich College, and a group of
the College’s Year 12 students. The
workshop introduced the UCAS process
with a short ‘true or false’ activity, with
students from both schools working in
teams to decide on the veracity of various
statements. The statements included
the number of applicants to university
through UCAS, World University
Rankings, average graduate salaries and
deciding what degree courses some
famous people had taken. This was an
effective ice-breaking exercise, which
ensured that no one could feel he or she
was an expert when it came to university
admissions.
The Year 10 City Heights students were
then given a brief overview of the UCAS
applications process and the Year 12
students explained what A‐levels they
were doing and the different courses
and universities they were planning to
apply to. The City Heights pupils were
introduced to course and career options
they had not previously considered, while
the Dulwich College pupils said it really
helped them to clarify their own plans
by having to articulate them for younger
pupils.
The next activity consisted of a wideranging
discussion of the likely nature
of jobs in the future that haven’t been
created yet. Students were also advised
about courses and careers on to which
one could move later, e.g. becoming a
solicitor or barrister via a post‐graduate
law conversion course.
The final part of the workshop consisted
of a question and answer session, much
of which focused on what subjects were
needed for certain careers. This also gave
the Dulwich students and their careers
adviser the opportunity to talk about the
importance of engaging in co‐curricular
activities that might support a career
aspiration, such as volunteering in a
hospital or care home for healthcare
related careers. The feedback from the
session was universally positive and
this workshop has provided a template
Dulwich College will consider repeating
at City Heights and taking to other 11‐16
partner schools.
There was a time when the only careers
advice the head of an independent
school needed to offer sixth formers was
on how to write a personal statement.
Those days are long gone. Whether
explicitly or implicitly, the new order is
that everything we do with our students
has some bearing on preparing them for
the fast-changing workplace. The jobs
they will go into may be newly minted
or newly branded, but the skills and
aptitudes they will require to succeed
in them are, in fact, those which have
always been needed in the world of work:
the ability to lead on a project, to work in
a team, to communicate clearly and the
ability to think outside the box.
All this they learn in their representation
of the school on its sport field, in
the joining of musical and theatrical
ensembles, in their community projects
and charitable fundraising and in their
adventurous activities. We are all careers
educators now – but explicit, nuanced
careers advice delivered by those
who work hard to keep up to speed
with changes in the major (and new)
professions, is still absolutely essential.
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