Kenilworth School and Sixth Form

The Careers Hub

Here at Kenilworth School and Sixth Form, we are committed to supporting and guiding our students through both their learning and their next steps. We provide impartial advice and guidance on further education, training or employment across all key stages.

We pride ourselves on building sustainable relationships with employers which will benefit the school for years to come. Similarly, our relationships with outside agencies are particularly robust.

Our careers leader is Mr Hoverd P.Hoverd@kssf.kmat.org.uk. Our School Careers Advisor is Ms. S Linsell. If you have any queries about careers, in the first instance, please contact s.linsell@kssf.kmat.org.uk

Careers roadmap 2023 - 2024
Within the careers hub you will find information with regards to:

University options Apprenticeships
Volunteering Gap Years
Interview preparation CVs
UCAS personal statements Work experience

 

The careers programme includes;

  • Assist Year 9 with Option choices
  • Assist and support Year 11 with their Post 16 options – College, Apprenticeship, 6th Form.
  • Support with Post 18 options: – Degree Apprenticeships, University, Employment.
  • Careers Events, Workshops, Employability skills programmes
  • Coordination of Work Experience – Year 11 and Year 13.
  • Details of our careers platform
  • Employability skills, which include CV’s, application form completion, mock interviews, exploring the ‘hidden job market’ and what the employer wants. 
  • Keeping up with Labour market information
  • Advertising vacancies from local employers.
  • Raising Career aspiration and motivating students to achieve their goals.

The updated provider access legislation (PAL) has now been enacted. It specifies schools must provide at least six encounters with approved providers of apprenticeships and technical education for all their students:  

  • Two encounters for pupils during the ‘first key phase’ (year 8 or 9) that are mandatory for all pupils to attend 
  • Two encounters for pupils during the ‘second key phase’ (year 10 or 11) that are mandatory for all pupils to attend 
  • Two encounters for pupils during the ‘third key phase’ (year 12 or 13) that are mandatory for the school to put on but optional for pupils to attend 

This new legislation will become a key mechanism to further help learners understand and take-up, not just apprenticeships, but wider technical education options such as T-Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications.  

At Kenilworth School and Sixth form we are keen to engage meaningfully with this updated requirement as part of our wider progressive careers programmes. 

Please see the attached link for further details about PAL.

 

Careers Fair November 2023

Please see the link for the exhibitor brochure for our annual school careers fair.
Many thanks to all who have been involved; we are looking forward to a busy and interesting morning for all Years 9-13

Brochure November 30th 2023

YEAR 10 - 12 WORK EXPERIENCE

At Kenilworth School and Sixth Form we follow the good practice guidance laid down by the Eight Gatsby Benchmarks which secondary schools and colleges can use to improve their career guidance programme.

Gatsby Benchmark 6 states that: Every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks.

We will be running work experience for Year 10 on July 8th -10th 2024

Year 11 pupils will also have the opportunity to go on a work experience placement June/July 2023, once their GCSE exams have finished.

Placements at this point in time, will be a great help with exploring future career pathways and gaining workplace skills. All work experience can also be recorded on CVs and personal statements ready for employment, apprenticeship or university applications.

Pupils will be spoken to about Work Experience during upcoming assemblies and  we will help them as much as we can. They will also be given a Work Experience guide. It is important this is read through carefully as it contains details regarding consent forms and information about Health and Safety and Safeguarding. We will be using the Unifrog Work Placements tool for students to add details of their work experience placements, fill in the necessary forms, and check the progress of employer, parent and school coordinator forms.

All students should be able to login to their Unifrog accounts using their school email address. https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in

Unifrog have created a set of guides about placements which you can find here.

Within this set of guides, this is the best one to start with (it includes a short animation of how the whole process works).

If any student needs help with this, please contact (please change to)  Mrs Linsell, Head of Careers,

IN-PERSON WORK EXPERIENCE.

Each student will be expected to attempt to arrange their own placement with the support from parents, relatives, friends, the school and other contacts.

Any opportunities that the school becomes aware of will be posted on Class charts.  The Work Experience guide will give hints and tips and discuss the Health & Safety, Insurance and Safeguarding requirements

There is a guide to writing a good CV here:

Student Room - Kenilworth School (ksn.org.uk)

work experience guide

VIRTUAL WORK EXPERIENCE.

* N.B This is information for any student as can be carried out to suit a student’s personal schedule. E.g holidays etc.  

Due to changing work practices over recent years, many organisations offer hybrid working models which combine working from home as well as in an office / workplace setting.

Virtual work experience is now more widely available and has become another way for students to undertake work experience or occasionally supplement an in-person placement. Virtual placements can have the advantage of a global reach; however, students may not feel that they get the full experience of actually being in the workplace.

For any work experience - whether in person or virtual - to be meaningful and beneficial to the students it is important that there is a clear objective and outcome.

We recommend students look at reputable companies dedicated to free high quality virtual work experience placements. These can sometimes be found on a company website, for example, Coventry Building Society. 

These include:

Springpod

  • Students receive a certificate from the employer at the end of the programme for use in CVs, Personal Statements and future interviews.
  • The sessions all feature live interaction, allowing students to ask any burning questions directly to the experts.
  • Tasks will be set during the programme which will be marked upon completion, helping students to gain career knowledge and experience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygXC4r-SkMo

Speakers for Schools: Virtual and In-Person Work Experience with Top Employers (speakersforschools.org)  

  • Our aspirational engagements, put young people in touch with the very best, to spark their ambitions and the belief in what is possible for the future.

Forage https://www.theforage.com/  

  • At Forage, every student has a chance to get ahead by building a resume, experiencing what the real work looks like and learning critical skills, working with employers world-wide. They provide bite-sized 5-6 hour virtual work experience programs that they claim give students a genuine career advantage with the world's top companies

email templateExample Application Letter

Remember, pupils can take part in as many activities as they have time for!

Any additional opportunities that come to the attention of the school will be posted out to all Year 10, 11 and 12 on Class Charts.

N.B Student Handbooks, Diaries and Feedback forms will be posted on the website in due course.

Any questions please contact Mrs. Linsell (Head of Careers):

 

 

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Measures and Access Impact

YEAR 11 DESTINATIONS – 2021-2022

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YEAR 13 DESTINATIONS – 2021-2022

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