‘InvestIN’ Your Career
The award-winning Careers department at RGS Worcester runs an extensive programme to assist pupils in choosing their career pathway, ensuring that they develop the skills needed for the workplace and for their futures.
Work experience plays a key role in helping pupils to form a ‘bridge’ between what happens in the classroom and the application of skills in the workplace. To assist with this important development process RGS Worcester partners with InvestIN, a UK based organisation that delivers careers experiences for school students who aspire to break into some of the world’s most competitive and desirable industries.
On Friday 27 January, Emily Laycock from InvestIN visited RGS Worcester to speak to Lower Sixth students. They learnt the importance of work experience for this stage in their career planning and the key skills they could gain through having these opportunities. They heard about where to look for work experience placements, how to make the most of a work experience placement, and also about other activities students can undertake to get ahead in the future. Year Eleven pupils will also have the opportunity to hear all about the value of work experience prior to the Career and Higher Education EXPO on 30 March.
We encourage Lower Sixth and Year Eleven pupils to arrange work experience placements during the summer holidays, hence the reason to start researching potential employers and organisations who may be able to offer a placement. Pupils are at key stages in their career planning and exposure to the world of work in an occupational sector they are considering can really add value before commencing Sixth Form courses.
For current Lower Sixth students, work placements can provide valuable insight before they start applying for University courses or Degree Apprenticeships. Applying to University is becoming increasingly competitive and UCAS are predicting double the numbers of applicants by 2026 compared with 2006 in their ‘Journey to a Million’. Having an enhanced understanding of their chosen career pathway can help students’ applications be more relevant and insightful and make a positive difference at interviews.
Our School community and extended contact networks provide a valuable resource of potential work placement contacts. If you can offer your son or daughter, or another member of the RGS community, work experience within the organisation you work for or work-shadowing the role you do, we would be very grateful. Having a school-aged pupil in an organisation can offer a different perspective for a company too! If you are able to offer work experience placements, please contact our Designated Careers Lead for the school, Mrs Audrey Williams via careers@rgsw.org.uk.