Week commencing 18th May marked a very busy week for Alsager students in careers education as they participated in an innovative virtual ‘Paving the Way’ Careers Festival, launched by The Cheshire and Warrington Pledge and hosted by the Local Enterprise Partnership via the Learn Live platform.
Bringing employers and young people together during challenging lockdown times, the successful four-day festival, involving 67 employers and 17 Further and Higher Education providers, provided a source of inspiration and information for a high number of Alsager School students that registered and participated in the virtual online journey, learning about further education and the world of work. The festival enabled the students to interact with employers from different industries and find out more about specific careers, new technologies and job opportunities in sectors that were of interest to them, as well as Further Education, Higher Education and apprenticeship opportunities both locally and nationally. Local and national employers also delivered short sessions about preparing for interviews, CV writing and employability tips for the future.
Helena Cartlidge, Year 10, said: “I went onto the Learn Live festival website multiple times and I found it really interesting learning about jobs I had never considered before. I found it really helped me get a better understanding of what university life is like and what it is like to study at certain universities”.
Students still have the opportunity to participate in a ‘Win a Weeks Work Experience’ competition that covers different geographical and sector areas.
Our Science department also took part in a virtual Live Learn session on Weds 20th May with global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. In total, 134 students, including year 10 and year 11 triple and dual scientists, as well as some year 12 students took part in the session which aimed to inspire them to continue to study science post 16 and consider a STEM career in the future.
Astra Zeneca Microbiologists Miriam Guest, Georgie Critchlow and Benjamin Pickard shared a summary of working in the pharmaceutical industry and details around the day to day working of microbiologists. Students learned about interactions with other scientists and how the principles of infection control relate to manufacturing medicines. They shared information on AstraZeneca’s response to COVID-19 and some of the activities required to develop new medicinal products.
The innovative and informative event was followed up with a selection of competitions set by the scientists at AZ, who will be judging and awarding prizes for the best entries, some of which you can see displayed.
Finally, why not make use of this time to think about careers and what to do in the future? Joanne Green, our Careers Advisor, has two careers days left this academic year which are Tuesdays 9th & 16th June so if any student would like a telephone appointment with her please email Mrs Casewell on c.casewell@alsagerschool.org to advise which date and which time slot you would like to request from 9:30am, 10am, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 1:15pm, 2pm or 2:45pm. Please also let her know what telephone number Joanne should ring students on. Afterwards Joanne will write up a Careers Action Plan (the same way she would have if she had seen students in school) and Mrs Casewell will email it to student’s school email address. After 16th June, if any careers support is required please email Mrs Casewell.
