Careers Department

Preparation for the Future...

Mrs K Knowles, Mrs E Lowe & Mrs C Sutcliffe

Each year we offer the girls (and boys!) the opportunity to attend our specialist Careers days. The first was a Media and Digital Media Day in the Autumn term. We had two keynote speakers, the first being Mike Bushell, a sport presenter on BBC’s Breakfast who has tried out 474 sports with the aim of inspiring others to find the right one for them. Mike talked about his life and career, including writing his own newspaper as a child, acting in a school production, and working for newspapers before getting his TV break. He said that all of these experiences gave him stories to tell, but none more so than touring Europe with his band and visiting Berlin at the time the Berlin Wall came down. He encouraged pupils to go out and get life experiences to talk about during job interviews. Sarah Jones is the Deputy Head of Media at Coventry University and a former journalist and TV presenter. She describes herself as a storyteller and works extensively with virtual reality. Her presentation was about immersive media and VR, with additional focus on lessons from her career. A variety of other presentations took place during the day. Old Boy Mike Lodmore, who now works for dock10 TV studios at Media City in Salford, gave a fascinating workshop about broadcast engineering in which pupils set up a miniature TV studio. Other guest speakers included Margaret Burgin, Future Skills Manager at the BBC; Neil Dougan, lecturer in Film and Television at the University of Bolton; Kevin Fenmore, the Programme Leader at the School of Media, Design and Technology at the University of Bradford; and two members of the Tower FM team. In the Spring term we were privileged to welcome Dr Mohammed Jiva to be the keynote speaker for a whole day dedicated to exploring the reality of working in the NHS. Dr Jiva is a full time GP but also holds a number of influential managerial jobs within the NHS. Having received a MBE in 2014 and an award at the House of Lords in 2015, his next goal is to support the migration of the existing health service across the Rochdale Borough towards a new system that supports and manages public health and expectations of the Boroughs residents. His presentation on the Evolution of a New National Health Service was received with great interest. There were 11 other talks during the day, including a presentation from UCLAN on the relatively new role of the Physician’s Associate as well as talks on other specialist areas; sessions from both Lancaster and Manchester universities on the admissions procedures for their medical schools and Manchester’s dental school.

Several alumni also gave their time to speak at this event. It was fascinating to hear from Old Boy Mobeen Qureshi about life as a medical student and junior doctor. His stories were inspirational but he did not shy away from exploring the real pressures of his work. We were delighted to hear from Old Girl Helena Bird from Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust about her work in Pharmacy, and from Old Girl Carishma Hirani who spoke about her degree in Operating Department Practice. The day was a great success and allowed both girls and boys to learn about a wide range of roles they could go on to explore further for themselves.Mike Bushell

Old Girl Carishma Hirani

Business Links

Once again international firm KPMG has launched its paid summer internship programme, offering two successful candidates from across the Girls’ and Boys’ Division Sixth Forms the exciting opportunity to shadow employees in the KPMG Audit and Corporate Finance teams. Bolton-based chartered accountants Cowgill Holloway have also run the ‘Future Stars’ programme for the second year, allowing Priya Guhathakurta (Y12-C2) and Luke Cavanaugh to experience the world of business and finance through a series of week-long placements. Staff at Cowgills also gave their time to talk to pupils one lunchtime to answer the question “What is the Budget and Why is it Important?” Attended predominantly by Business and Economics students, this useful lunchtime seminar was fascinating and pupils came armed with plenty of interesting questions!

Young Enterprise

Due to growing demand there were four Young Enterprise teams this year. Two from Year 10, ...in a jar and Luxe, and two from Year 12, Mugs Away and Anime. All four teams succeeded in developing a product which they sold at a range of markets and events during the year. …in a jar won the Best Company at the Bolton and Bury Area Final and made it through to the next round, where they performed extremely well but were against some strong competition. Well done to all the girls who took part!

...in a jar “We are …in a jar, a company that specialises in small luxury gifts in jars. All our products are lovingly put together by our team to create the perfect product. Whether it’s a therapeutic spa experience you’re after or just some simple gardening, we have the product for you.”

Mugs Away