Winchester Lifestyle Aug - Sep 2021
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The importance of preparing<br />
students for the workplace<br />
Dr Joseph Spence, head of Dulwich College, discusses the value<br />
careers-based workshops can bring to independent schools and<br />
their state school partners...<br />
Careers education is an important<br />
element of a school’s provision, and<br />
a service one cannot introduce to<br />
pupils too early. Prospective parents,<br />
even of 11‐year‐olds, are asking far<br />
more questions than they used to<br />
about how we are preparing children<br />
for the workplace of the future. This is<br />
inevitable given all of the rhetoric about<br />
the percentage of jobs not yet created<br />
into which our pupils will move, and the<br />
fact that they will likely have multiple<br />
careers, possibly across many countries<br />
or continents, over the course of long<br />
working lives.<br />
Networking events focused on particular<br />
professions or industries have proven<br />
immensely popular. These bring together<br />
former pupils and current and past<br />
parents, alongside pupils from both<br />
independent and state schools.<br />
However, it is also useful to look for<br />
ways older pupils can deliver light‐touch<br />
advice to their younger peers at partner<br />
schools. As co‐director of the Southwark<br />
Schools Learning Partnership, I have<br />
been delighted in recent years to be able<br />
to encourage a hub of careers advisers<br />
from a good number of our 16 schools<br />
(12 state schools and four independent<br />
schools) to share best practice between<br />
schools and across the sectors. Latterly,<br />
we have had our own students help focus<br />
the minds of younger pupils at a partner<br />
school on potential university applications<br />
and the world of careers.<br />
Last June, a group of Year 10 students<br />
from City Heights E‐ACT Academy<br />
in South East London had a careers<br />
workshop with our careers adviser<br />
at Dulwich College, and a group of<br />
the College’s Year 12 students. The<br />
workshop introduced the UCAS process<br />
with a short ‘true or false’ activity, with<br />
students from both schools working in<br />
teams to decide on the veracity of various<br />
statements. The statements included<br />
the number of applicants to university<br />
through UCAS, World University<br />
Rankings, average graduate salaries and<br />
deciding what degree courses some<br />
famous people had taken. This was an<br />
effective ice-breaking exercise, which<br />
ensured that no one could feel he or she<br />
was an expert when it came to university<br />
admissions.<br />
The Year 10 City Heights students were<br />
then given a brief overview of the UCAS<br />
applications process and the Year 12<br />
students explained what A‐levels they<br />
were doing and the different courses<br />
and universities they were planning to<br />
apply to. The City Heights pupils were<br />
introduced to course and career options<br />
they had not previously considered, while<br />
the Dulwich College pupils said it really<br />
helped them to clarify their own plans<br />
by having to articulate them for younger<br />
pupils.<br />
The next activity consisted of a wideranging<br />
discussion of the likely nature<br />
of jobs in the future that haven’t been<br />
created yet. Students were also advised<br />
about courses and careers on to which<br />
one could move later, e.g. becoming a<br />
solicitor or barrister via a post‐graduate<br />
law conversion course.<br />
The final part of the workshop consisted<br />
of a question and answer session, much<br />
of which focused on what subjects were<br />
needed for certain careers. This also gave<br />
the Dulwich students and their careers<br />
adviser the opportunity to talk about the<br />
importance of engaging in co‐curricular<br />
activities that might support a career<br />
aspiration, such as volunteering in a<br />
hospital or care home for healthcare<br />
related careers. The feedback from the<br />
session was universally positive and<br />
this workshop has provided a template<br />
Dulwich College will consider repeating<br />
at City Heights and taking to other 11‐16<br />
partner schools.<br />
There was a time when the only careers<br />
advice the head of an independent<br />
school needed to offer sixth formers was<br />
on how to write a personal statement.<br />
Those days are long gone. Whether<br />
explicitly or implicitly, the new order is<br />
that everything we do with our students<br />
has some bearing on preparing them for<br />
the fast-changing workplace. The jobs<br />
they will go into may be newly minted<br />
or newly branded, but the skills and<br />
aptitudes they will require to succeed<br />
in them are, in fact, those which have<br />
always been needed in the world of work:<br />
the ability to lead on a project, to work in<br />
a team, to communicate clearly and the<br />
ability to think outside the box.<br />
All this they learn in their representation<br />
of the school on its sport field, in<br />
the joining of musical and theatrical<br />
ensembles, in their community projects<br />
and charitable fundraising and in their<br />
adventurous activities. We are all careers<br />
educators now – but explicit, nuanced<br />
careers advice delivered by those<br />
who work hard to keep up to speed<br />
with changes in the major (and new)<br />
professions, is still absolutely essential.<br />
18 | www.minervamagazines.co.uk