Staff and students recently celebrated National Careers Week (NCW), which aims to promote career guidance in schools and colleges and support young people to develop awareness and excitement about their future career pathways.
To kickstart the week, we launched the Next Steps Programme for students, a new platform that guides students and tutors on their options once they finish their course. A virtual career fair for students was available all week, providing plenty of opportunities to explore. We hosted a recruitment event where we invited people to come in for a chat about our current vacancies.
During the week, we held a Recruitment Fair Careers Expo for students that included guidance on apprenticeships and the chance to meet industry experts, apprenticeship providers, universities, and employers to help discover future job possibilities. A highlight for many students was seeing a McLaren sports car on site from Everyman Racing, who spoke to students about apprenticeships and part-time opportunities they had available.
Students welcomed talks from guest speakers from the University of East Anglia, Loughborough University, and the Army, who talked to students about budgeting, finance, business start-ups, and Army careers. At the end of the week, we spoke to students about apprenticeship opportunities in local schools.
Above: Sergeant Richard Bowles from Army Reserve Centre, Loughborough
Sergeant Richard Bowles from the Army Reserve Centre in Loughborough said: “I work closely with the Uniform Service Course here at Loughborough College and was here last week. These events are good as they enable us to meet students in higher education and show them the opportunities we have and qualifications they can gain by joining the Army Reserve.”
Above: Students speaking to the Everyman Racing team
Megan Erskine, Everyman Racing, commented, “At Everyman Racing, we want the best or nothing. We’re here to find the best of what Loughborough College offers. We have a freelance pool of 2000 people and a range of jobs available. We want to bring in talent and find people interested in cars to join us and travel with our luxury cars across the country to our events. It’s nice to bring a car on campus and showcase our cars to students.”
Hayley Cousins, Recruitment Consultant, Loughborough College, commented, “The Careers event was great with fantastic student engagement. Apprenticeships are vital in creating the future workforce, and to highlight Apprenticeships and talk about our exciting opportunities with our learners was valuable.”
Michael Campbell, Careers & Enterprise Manager, commented: “National Careers Week aims to empower young people to make informed choices about their next steps by ensuring they get the best career advice and information possible. Our Careers Expo provided learners with direct access to employers offering part-time jobs, providing the opportunity to speak to universities and our HE department about HE courses. This event was fundamental in breaking down barriers of the classroom walls to deepen learning. We had a positive turnout from our learners over the two days, and this experience allowed them to associate with professionals and create meaningful learning connections.”
Above: Joanna Knight, Hayley Cousins, Lois Burton, Michael Campbell from our Apprenticeship team
Thank you to everyone who was involved in supporting this brilliant event!