BVGS aims to provide students with a variety of careers-related activities to enrich their education and enable them to make fully-informed decisions at each stage of their education. This is achieved through the categories of activity detailed below.
1 to 1 Appointments
All Students have a careers appointment with an independent careers advisor in Year 11, and receive a further careers interview before the end of Year 13.
All other students are able to seek a careers appointment on request.
Interaction with Employers
Students throughout the school are provided with an insight into the world of work. This is achieved through regular visits from employers to speak about their work and the pathway into their profession. The school also runs subject-related societies on a weekly basis – including LawSoc, MedSoc, EconSoc.
Encounters with Further and Higher Education
We organise regular visits from Universities looking at subject-specific courses, for example Medicine/Dentistry, Engineering/STEM and the UCAS process generally. We also arrange speakers to promote access programmes, for example Newcastle Partners Programme, Birmingham A2B and Warwick Scholars.
Apprenticeships
We promote apprenticeships by providing students and parents/carers with information, both in general terms and in relation to specific professions. We also promote apprenticeship opportunities with firms from a wide variety of professions and industries.
Careers Fair
The annual Careers Fair is an excellent event, attended by circa 50 employers and higher education providers. This enables students to speak directly with employers and representatives from universities and colleges.
Work Experience
Students take part in work experience during Years 10 and 12 and are assisted by the school in finding placements and drafting CV’s.
Careers Assemblies / Presentations
Careers-specific assemblies are provided for all years, with contents tailored to the stage of the students’ education. Presentations are provided at a variety of Open Evenings, for example Year 11 Information Evening and Year 12 Higher Education Evening.
Enrichment
A wealth of enrichment activities are provided throughout the school, for example mentoring programmes, volunteering and NCS.
Publicising Events
Careers opportunities are advertised via Teams, Parentcomms, Blog and Twitter.
A general summary of careers activities provided by the school for each year is detailed in the attached Careers Programme.
Careers Programme by School Year
Students are required to follow a programme of activities set for their school year using the Unifrog platform. These activities cover a variety of employability skills and careers-related topics, and are completed during form time and/or homework tasks. Details of the Unifrog tasks set for each year are attached below.
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Year 12
Year 13