3 minute read
CLIMATE ANXIETY
Work ethics
How entrepreneurial courses open doors to future employment
Milton Abbey challenges preconceptions. We are a traditional British boarding school, set in glorious countryside, and we are deliberately small, meaning each student is given exceptional care and attention, which helps build their confidence so they can achieve their personal best. Yet, despite our small size and traditional appearance, we prioritise employability and o er a huge range of courses, including modern subjects usually not found at other schools.
We are now in our 14th year of o ering
BTECs - vocational qualifications that focus on developing transferrable, practical skills and uses project-based assignments as the main method of assessment, rather than end-of-course exams. We are the only independent school to have been recognised as School of the Year by Pearson, the external awarding body for these qualifications. Sixth Form students are able to combine BTECs with A-Levels, and in younger years BTECs can be studied alongside GCSEs, allowing the school to find exactly the right mix of subjects for each student.
Enterprise & Entrepreneurship is one of our longest-running BTEC courses and remains very popular, both with students aiming for university and those who already have a business career in mind. For some, an A-Level in Economics may be the best option to build their analytical and statistical skills, but many prefer the more rounded combination of theory, practical skills and industry-focused projects o ered by the BTEC course.
Students often combine these businessorientated subjects with a course related to the industry they would like to work in, whether it's media and journalism, events management, real estate, fashion design or performing arts. Milton Abbey o ers courses in these disciplines and many more.
Our unique ‘rotation curriculum’ allows pupils as young as 13 to sample a wide range of courses from the moment they join the school, alongside studying essential subjects like English, Maths and Science. Subjects as diverse as equine management and photography, or leadership development
REBECCA BARTON
and hospitality, expose students to new ideas, nurture skills and confidence they didn't know they had, help them make informed decisions about their subject choices in later school years, and may open their eyes to a future career they’d never even considered. Milton Abbey also runs an Entrepreneur in Residence Scheme, with lectures and one-to-
one business mentoring from household names including designer Cath Kidston, fashion mogul Johnnie Boden, David Ross, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, and Annoushka Ducas MBE, the jewellery designer who cofounded Links of London. The scheme has a competitive element, with students pitching ideas for a start-up business and receiving funding to help make their plans a reality.
Further down the line, our entrepreneurial leavers have set-up a variety of successful business. These include popular restaurants, the sound engineering company that orchestrated the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, an international wine importer, and a leaver whose passion for art led him to launch his own dealership specialising in African art and antiques.
The vast majority of our leavers go to university, many studying business-related
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Fashion Design & Production is a recent addition
ABOVE & BELOW
Students working on Digital Content Production and Music Technology degrees before embarking on their careers. UK universities now recognise BTEC and A-Level courses equally in their entrance requirements. In fact, our analysis found that studying a vocational BTEC that was relevant to their chosen degree course actually improved the university o ers given to students, compared to if they had only studied A-Levels.
We keep our focus on emerging employment trends. Milton Abbey is frequently the first boarding school in the UK to introduce exciting new subjects: Digital Content Production, Music Technology and Fashion Design & Production are all recent popular additions. We want our students to be irresistibly employable at the end of their time with us, ready for the 21st century workplace.
