Year 8 Career Carousel at Bridge Learning Campus
Year 8 students at Bridge Learning Campus had a full-on day exploring a range of different careers with six different employers: MCS, Everyone Active, Babcock, YTL Group, Bristol Avon River Trust and Sirona Care & Health.
This event followed on from a Careers Carousel the students attended whilst in Year 7, providing students with further exposure to different employers to raise career aspirations. The theme of the day was resilience, with employer sessions designed to include a challenge and stories of resilience to help students practice building this skill
In the session with Everyone Active, students were surprised to find out about all the ‘behind the scenes’ jobs within the gym industry whilst learning about the skills required to work in the sector. They stepped into the shoes of a Gym Manager for the session as they responded to a ‘Design a Gym’ brief around creating safe and inclusive gyms for young people. Students practiced their presenting skills as they pitched their ideas to the volunteers at the end of the session.
Babcock volunteers challenged students to build a clay boat that could float and hold as many marbles as possible. Students practiced their teamwork and resilience in this session as mini- challenges were introduced throughout that meant they had to change their designs. Students came up with all sorts of creative boats as they practised their problem-solving skills. One student highlighted ‘it challenged my brain to see if I could make the most light and buoyant boat’.
The Year 8’s undertook challenges directly linked to job roles in the session with Bristol Avon River Trust including Aquatic Ecologists and River Restoration Officers. Students got hands-on identifying invertebrates sampled from local rivers as well as designing Sustainable Urban Draining Systems for their school grounds. Throughout these challenges students gained an understanding of the skills required to work in the environmental sector. When asked what was useful for the students, one teacher commented, ‘Introduction to the current challenges and our actions impacting the future of rivers. It was informative and encouraging to young minds.’
Continuing with the water theme, YTL Group challenged students to think about where our water comes from. Students were reminded of the water cycle and showed how water is treated and filtered ready for reuse. In this session students learnt about the variety of jobs involved in the treatment process as well as transferable skills required to work in the sector.
Students’ resilience was tested in the session with MCS as they built towers to meet a design specification set by the volunteers. They also learnt about the importance of building resilience to help problem solve at work as well as different skills needed to work at MCS. When asked what was most useful about the sessions, one student highlighted ‘The MCS one because it showed us how to think creatively’.
Sirona care & health opened students’ eyes to the variety of careers available within the healthcare sector. Students explored some of the equipment an Occupational Therapist uses with their clients as well as learning how to bandage up their hands. The session ended with a competitive game of battleships testing students’ knowledge of the human body and the healthcare system. Reflecting on the session, one student commented ‘I would like to be a doctor when I’m older so the session about health and care was very helpful to me’.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with students highlighting that it broadened their horizons to different career options available to them, with one student mentioning ‘I found it very useful today because I have more options for a better job and a better future’ and another commenting, ‘the most useful thing today was doing different tasks while learning about jobs’. The students also highlighted learning about transferable skills as a useful part of the day, such as ‘learning teamwork’, one student reflected. One of the teacher’s commented that the ‘variety of jobs’ was the most useful part of the day.
Reflecting on the day, one employer commented that ‘the day was very rewarding and it was nice to see the students interact, have fun and grow’ and another ‘The kids were definitely engaged in the practical activity and showed real enthusiasm and problem solving’.
Thank you to all the students at Bridge Learning Campus for their brilliant engagement across the day and to all our employer volunteers!
