Overview
Careers education and guidance is available to all students at Bridgewater through our own Careers Officer (Mr Barker) and through our partnership with ISCO (Independent Schools Careers Organisation). Discrete careers lessons are provided for all students in Years 9 and 10, whilst one to one guidance and focussed sessions are available for Years 11 - 13. The school now has a well resourced careers room located in the sixth form, and all careers lesson are delivered in an ICR suite to take full advantage of the web based nature of the majority of careers information.
Year 9
The year 9 careers curriculum begins with an introduction to the world of work via the online “Real game”. Students are allocated a job and have to balance their finances and lifestyle accordingly – not always an easy task! Each student then researches a career area and prepares a short presentation for their peers; as well as developing their presentation and communication skills this introduces students to the enormous range of careers information sources available both online and in written form. The final focus of Year 9 is around team skills and encouraging students to identify what kind of role they may be suited to within a team.
Year 10
The year 10 careers curriculum focuses on the practical skills students will require when entering the world of work. Each student prepares their own CV and has to write a letter of application for a work experience placement. Also covered are interview techniques and an introduction to psychometric testing. All students complete the “kudos” online career matching test; this indicates possible areas fro further investigation as well as encouraging students to reflect honestly on their likes and dislikes and how this may influence their career choice.
Work Experience
All students in years 10 and 12 undertake a formal one week placement in June of each year. In year 10 the emphasis is on experiencing a week at work and this does not necessarily need to be in their intended career area (for instance medical placements are simply not possible at this age). Students are thoroughly prepared in how to make the most of the experience, protocols when applying and approaching organisations, health and safety issues and communication in the workplace.
In year 12, students are expected to undertake a placement that will be directly supportive and relevant to their intended University course or future career. As well as the formal placement students are encouraged to seek additional placements throughout the year to add strength to their personal statements.
All our placements have full liability insurance and are vetted for their appropriateness.
Useful Links
Click on the links below for some online career resources