Year 12 students took part in the college’s first ever fully remote work-related experience and progression (WREP) week. From May 24th to 28th 2021 all Year 12 students could access over 119 sessions with local and national providers, develop employability skills and learn more about their career plans. Every subject area at Bilborough Sixth Form College provided a career challenge and businesses also provided challenge activities in marketing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, IT and fashion. We were able to attract international companies such as BBC, Channel 5 and the NHS to support the event with inactive workshops as well as many high-profile Universities such as Nottingham, Sheffield, Derby, Lincoln and Cardiff Metropolitan.
Over the week the sessions were attended over 5000 times and students reported how informative and beneficial the week was for them. Director of Curriculum and Quality Andrew Ball was pleased with the new programme and its wider impact on the student experience at Bilborough Sixth Form College. He said “I believe this was an incredibly valuable and positive experience for our learners and a huge thank you to all the staff and external organisations that worked tirelessly to host an event of this size in such a tough year for education and young people”. The event was well received by the students, Joshua Eaton one of our Year 12 members of the Student Executive team said “WREP week was a great opportunity to explore not only what careers our subjects can lead to, but to explore various different career paths that we may not have considered before. Hearing from Politics graduates who had gone on to work in City Hall London, the Civil Service, with the RAF and in political consultancy made me all the more excited to apply for Politics at university.” Alison Lardi, Careers and Progression Manager, added “We would usually invite employers and universities into college during the year, and students would go out on work experience placements, but this couldn’t happen this year. The WREP week gave our students an even wider range of opportunities than usual though, and they developed employability skills in the subject and employer challenges. We were proud of how well they engaged, and now feel they have a great foundation for informed decision-making about their futures”.