CAREERS

NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP SHOW – Earn Whilst you Learn

On Wednesday 4 March, nine pupils, Mrs Brown and Dr Avery were lucky enough to attend the National Apprenticeship Show at Sandown Park. The show featured over 30 organisations that offered a wide range of apprenticeship routes, as an alternative to going to university.

What became very clear was the number of apprenticeships available and how many different levels there were.

upils from Caterham

PSchool, leaving after their Sixth Form education are generally looking at level 5/6/7. A level 5 is known as a Higher Apprenticeship and is usually the equivalent to an HND or HNC level degree whereas a level 6/7 is known as a Degree

Apprenticeship which will allow you to study for a full UK degree whilst earning a salary. Apprenticeships are funded by the government under the apprenticeship levy and offer pupils the opportunity to earn a salary whilst being paid and sponsored through a degree programme. In most cases, apprentices will work for four days a week and then study on the fifth. Competition for places can be immense and the higher and degree levels have recruitment procedures very similar to graduate recruitment schemes, involving online applications, online assessments, a video interview, an assessment centre day and panel or individual interviews, which take place over a number of months.

The grade requirements are often considerably lower than those required by universities and this always worries some pupils – they worry that lower grades signify a lesser quality of degree. This could not be further from the truth! Companies offering these routes know that A level academic attainment does not always match suitability to the workplace and their online assessments, which can be tough, are designed to pick out those pupils who are strong in in the areas where they are looking for certain skills and attributes. Recruiters also understand that not everyone exceeds in examinations and that applying your learning to a real life job can be perfect for some people.

Some of the stand out programmes for our pupils were those at KPMG, Deloitte and Accenture whilst I was particularly intrigued by the brand new Police Constable degree apprenticeship with the Metropolitan Police! It was a great event and as one pupil commented, “it was a very informative event that definitely provided plenty of insight into what different companies had to offer”.

In any one year, Nestlé offer just ten places at Gatwick and four at their York office so it is vital to understand how important your application and ability to shine at interview is in securing an offer.

DEGREE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME

For the final workshop of the new Degree Apprenticeship programme, we were delighted to welcome Jack, Joe and Jordan from Nestlé head office in Gatwick.

All three are current apprentices on the Chartered Management degree programme. For Jack and Joe we were the first school they had visited although Jordan was on his third school visit! It was inspiring, for the twenty students in attendance, to hear first-hand about the scheme and how preparation is key to making a credible application for these very competitive schemes. In any one year, Nestlé offer just ten places at Gatwick and four at their York office so it is vital to understand how important your application and ability to shine at interview is in securing an offer.

This workshop, looking at the interview stages of application, covered all the stages involved – from researching the company, thinking about your strengths and how you can make the activities you are involved in demonstrate these strengths, as well as preparing questions to ask your interviewer. Jack, Joe and Jordan took us through their journeys too.

To finish off the session, the pupils were asked to come up with a very simple launch campaign to market Nestlé’s new vegetarian and vegan instant latte sachets, which started some amusing, healthy debate especially about the age range of vegans!

Careers in VFX, Games and Animation

ON TUESDAY 4 FEBRUARY, WE WERE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME CAROLINE COX FROM ESCAPE STUDIOS IN LONDON, TO TALK ABOUT THE HUGE VARIETY OF CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN THE VISUAL EFFECTS, GAMES AND ANIMATION INDUSTRIES.

Escape Studios, based in London, offer a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses alongside short courses, for anyone who is looking to break into these lucrative, yet competitive professions. Over 70% of roles within these industries are creative and so, it came as no surprise that students taking this route tended to study an art based A Level such as Fine Art, Product Design or Photography. There are also opportunities for those who are interested in the computer science and coding/ software development areas but these roles are fewer in number. She explained that VFX is when the subject is designed to look real, whereas motion graphics is where subjects are meant to be more of a cartoon style animation – areas where potential students often get confused.

CHANGING LIVES

On Tuesday 3 March the Careers Department was delighted to welcome back Abi Riches (OC 2013) to talk about her experiences since leaving Caterham. At school Abi explained she was always tied between studying something in the medical field or taking the performing arts route. In the beginning, drama won and she began studying at Queen Mary’s University, however she soon found that it wasn’t the right route for her and that the course, which had very little performing, was not what she wanted. It took her two years to finally take the plunge and apply to study midwifery at the University of Brighton and last year she finally qualified.