Careers Guidance Interviews For Year 10
As part of the careers curriculum Year 10 will start to have careers interviews in school. The pupils not seen in the remainder of this term will be offered interviews in the Michaelmas Term (when they will be in Year 11). We will work through the year group but if your son/daughter is very keen or you feel needs the motivation careers work brings do get in touch by emailing Jacquiquinney@princethorpe.co.uk or kerrylow@princethorpe.co.uk and we can arrange to see them earlier.
To help pupils know what to expect here is a quick explanation of what happens in the session. A careers guidance interview is an impartial, one-to-one meeting between the pupil and a professionally qualified careers adviser. It will last about 30 minutes and there will be the chance for second, third and fourth interviews after mock exams in Year 11. A careers guidance interview is not like a job interview, there are no right or wrong answers. The careers interviews will be held in F49 and pupils will be asked to bring their laptop so they can logon to Unifrog which is our careers computer database which they can use for self directed research.
The benefits of having guidance interviews are, increased motivation and self-confidence, greater self-awareness, improved decision making skills and increased awareness of opportunities aswell as tackling internal and external barriers to success for the student.
During a guidance interview we can do this by:
- identifying personal qualities and skills
- identifying skills they would like to develop
- coming up with ideas for study and work
- exploring specific career areas
- exploring current and future job opportunities
- understanding the process of job search, writing a CV and going for interviews
- exploring interests, likes and dislikes, family influences, personal barriers and work experience
- thinking about how study, work experience, and home-life can all contribute to employability
The careers adviser will give:
- accurate and up-to-date information
- the opportunity, if suitable, to complete a personality-based assessment which helps individuals to know themselves better
- alternative sources of information and help if required
- a summary of the session on Unifrog under “interactions”
If you would like to help your young person prepare for their interview you could talk to them about:
- their current situation – what planning they have already done, if any
- qualifications or additional qualifications and experience required for the career they are interested in
- how much control they feel you have in making choices
- the ideas they already have but don't know how to move forward with or perhaps they have no ideas at all.
- Any ideas for work experience using your family contacts (even just a chat if it’s a career they can’t experience – psychology,medical,police).
During the careers interviews we can move the pupils forward in their planning no matter how much or how little preparation they have done. Year 10 is just the right time to start the conversations in a generalist way. Pupils will often say they do not know what they want when asked but then go on to tell us a great deal about what they want for their future lives once settled into the interview. It is easier to have a pupil with no planning than a stressed one who has been trying to figure it out in their own mind. Please also let us know if a pupil is overly worried about the session as we do not like them to be dwelling on it too long and will pull their tutor group forward or slow their session down to spend more time on rapport before talking about the future.
Jacqui Quinney
Head of Careers
