The Flagpole

Year 10 careers interviews will start at the beginning of March. These interviews are a great first step into individual careers planning, and Y10 pupils will be allowed time out of lessons to attend with the careers team. It’s always a bit nerve wracking knowing what it will be like and what is expected, so here’s just a brief outline of what to expect on the day and how they (and you) can prepare.

Pupils will be notified via their tutor in the Pupil Briefing about their careers interview. Parents are not expected to attend the first session, although they are welcome to attend second and third careers interviews should they wish to do so. In the interview, the pupils will be asked about their hobbies, in and out of school, to reflect on the decisions they have already made, such as Y9 options decisions, and of course if there are any careers ideas they would like to explore. The pupils are not expected to come with fully formed ideas or plans at this stage. We can look into any careers ideas, but also, the interview process is designed to inspire them to be aspirational.

Pupils will be introduced to a range of ways they could use their unique skills in the workplace in the UK and abroad, and shown how to start matching themselves to jobs. The careers team work on a natural fit for careers selection, with the student using their preferred skills to form a satisfying and interesting career journey. We will ask them to consider scenarios and give us their thoughts.

Did someone say homework?

If pupils wish to prepare for the interviews, the most useful thing is to start with an analysis of themselves. What are they good at? What do they enjoy? What can’t they stop doing? (I became a careers adviser because I’m nosey and like asking questions which got me into trouble in school). All these elements give the careers team a great sense of a pupil's personality which is a core element of being able to create, manage and sustain a great career. And parents, I have some homework for you too. You can help your young people by helping them identify and verbalise their unique skills and identify times that they have been totally engrossed in a task. These are all great clues to what will make a career that looks and feels like success. The other element parents can assist with is helping the young people verbalise what their own values are? What do they particularly care about and what makes them angry? Again, great clues for careers areas to start exploring.  

To assist with this process each Year 10 pupil has access to our Unifrog Careers Platform. The “interests” and also “personality profile” quizzes in Unifrog can be taken every six months in acknowledgement of the flurry of changes the young people experience in their ideas at this time. Careers ideas will change rapidly but Unifrog can be used to find impartial careers information in the “careers library” to help those who want to see if they like the sound of specific job roles.  

The last element that parents can help the pupils with is to share their own career timelines. Having a great match to a career takes work and research over a lifetime, and changes as we do, so ideas identified now morph and grow and not everyone can choose a career on demand. Career choice and satisfaction take development of self and the exploration of new environments outside the young people (which Covid has severely limited). If I told you chocolate cake was disgusting but never let you try it you would never know what you thought about it and so could never make a well informed, realistic decision. So, whether your children get to the end of Year 11 with just subjects they know they find fascinating and really want to follow, or whether they have a ten year plan (those pupils really do exist) we will support them (and you) along the way.

Kerry Low
Careers Advisor

A brand new webinar series has been launched focussing on what the University of Southampton is doing to help 'save the world'. You’ll learn how graduates are tackling some of the world’s biggest problems – from fighting climate change and cleaning up our oceans, to protecting human rights and building inclusive, sustainable communities. You will hear about their inspiring career journeys and discover how a degree from this university could help you to change the world for the better. Each webinar is designed to demonstrate how the university is committed to addressing the seventeen United Nations sustainable development goals.

All webinars are open to students interested in studying any subject and will run from 5.00pm - 6.00pm. Please click here for more information about the webinars and to secure your place.

So Phil, 'what's the future of jobs in construction?' Phil is a careers adviser at CITB, the Construction Industry Training Board. They oversee the training and development of people in the building industry.

"Ask people about careers and most know the craft trades of brickie to plumber but in the future we are going to see the development of self-healing concrete and machines that actually lay bricks. The job of the physical brick layer will be replaced with engineers controlling robotic bricklayers. The jobs are becoming more qualified. There is also the whole business and management side of building, logistics, buying and selling, the environmental roles, energy and project management. Who has heard of a 3D Visualiser (it’s an IT job)? There is a lot of work happening that will really change the construction industry and it’s happening now.” 

"There are a huge array of careers with plant machinery (that's diggers,excavators etc to you and me). Someone needs to sell them, build them, design them and generally we need 25,000 more people across the industry within the next 5 years. There are huge exciting projects locally, as well as HS2, that have just been granted permission to proceed, and Rugby as a town is due to benefit”.

We also have big shortage areas in structural and civil engineering, quantity surveying and building surveying all of which can be accessed through fantastically well-paid degree apprenticeships. Details of which can be found here. 

My question is, what do archaeologists have to do with all this? What do they do in modern building projects?

"The short answer (and the alternative is a very long answer steeped in local authority planning law) is that we are building homes on land that may have never been disturbed before. Treasures like the Staffordshire hoard and a whole underground Victorian garden have been discovered under farming land, and no one knows what other finds our countryside holds. Legally, before ground is broken up by housing developers the ground has to be explored by a qualified archaeologist. In fact we have such a shortage in the UK of people studying archaeology to degree level and beyond, that it is delaying builds all over the country." 

Personally I'm excited about the 3D printed buildings that are predicted to provide solutions to our housing shortages and help house people in Africa and other developing areas. I've spent many a careers interview watching a huge factory machine pipe concrete into patterns that look like giant cake icers to form walls and buildings (thanks YouTube and Arup building technology). There are degrees in construction management and even masters degrees in 3D construction - yes that's full size, two storey buildings.

Locally, companies like Apple Technology in Southam are keen to promote building careers and offer students an experience in their 360 degree simulator which reflects a real building site. They use this to help train building services engineers and architects as well as craft trades. Coventry Technology Centre employs actors to act as either disgruntled clients or local property owners affected by the build to help students develop skills through role play. Archaeological digs are in progress constantly, and they always need students to train to dig and catalogue.

So whatever subject students are interested in there will be a well-paid career that can match their unique interest and skills. The construction industry in particular is growing by 6% a year and expected to grow further with carbon net zero initiatives. Employers and educators are working together with the national and international skills councils and careers hubs across the UK to create learning opportunities that provide our students with the knowledge that they will need to get a job in our ever changing world.

Kerry Low
Careers Advisor

Work experience is now back on the post GCSE agenda, and, as things open up after COVID, we hope that all our Year 11 students will be able to find a placement in Summer 2022.

I would also suggest looking at the website Springpod which offers a virtual work experience programme which has been highly recommended by our Careers Advisor.

Many thanks to those who already have managed to help their son/daughter obtain a placement; in the meantime please could you let me know if you have managed to arrange something by emailing miketaylor@princethorpe.co.uk

Mike Taylor
Work Experience Co-ordinator