Careers and Virtual Careers Library

Written by Head of Careers at Immanuel College, Mrs Martine Travers. The careers work in the Sixth Form is aimed at providing information and guidance that will enable our students to find out more about themselves and about the opportunities that are available to them.

The Careers’ Department in the Sixth Form provides information and guidance that will enable our students to find out more about themselves and about the opportunities that are available to them.

Students are encouraged to consider their own abilities, interests and personal qualities, as well as to research the choices open to them.  To that end we work with VT Indigo, an independent careers’ consultancy, and the Hertfordshire Careers’ Service as appropriate.  We offer the Morrisby Profile in Year 11 and in the Sixth Form, which gives students a clear and detailed outline of their innate abilities and strengths, which are then matched to their interests and preferences.  The feedback interview, which forms part of the package, allows students to discuss A Level and university choices as well as more general career choices.
An integral aspect of the sixth-form careers education programme is the fortnight of work experience or shadowing, which all students are expected to undertake in the last two weeks of their Lower Sixth year.  We encourage students, early in their course, to start thinking about what they might like to do and to make their own arrangements.  If necessary we will help students find appropriate placements, utilising our substantial database of varied potential employers.  Work experience is carefully monitored and students are required to complete a diary that allows them to reflect on what they have learned from the experience.

Two prizes are awarded annually for the best work experience diaries and employers’ references can be used to support the UCAS process.  For those students studying French there is the exciting option, strongly recommended, of taking up a work-experience placement in Strasbourg.  Work experience abroad can also be organised for students of Spanish A Level.

Finally, it is important to emphasise that making a career decision is an on-going process and it is unlikely that such a decision can be made in a short period of time.  Students should browse through all the information and literature available (and there is a lot of it!) and take the opportunity to investigate further those areas that interest them.  Careers resources are housed in the Library, the sixth-form office and the sixth-form study room and much information is available on Prism, the school intranet system and online.

Help is, of course, always available from Mrs Travers, the Careers’ Officer and from the Careers’ teacher and the Director of Sixth Form.
 

Useful websites to explore:

• www.milkround.co.uk

1,000s of internships, graduate schemes & jobs plus events, advice & career guidance.

• www.cascaid.co.uk

Adult Directions Online is a careers and skills matching tool designed to help adults with their career decisions. The latest version offers instant and flexible access to:

•Careers matching
•Skills matching and analysis
•Client-based Action Plans
•Your own career ideas
•General career-related articles

• www.careerzone-uk.com

If you're wondering what to do after school or university, or if you're just fed up with people asking you, this site has over 5000 vacancies, including part-time and holiday work. There is even advice on putting a CV together and polishing up your interview technique. 

• www.talent4europe.com

Talent4Europe provides applicants with a pan-European recruitment portal which will open the gate to 12 leading national job sites and newspapers. Talent4Europe brings together a diverse group of job offers to give applicants a better sense of Europe's vast employment opportunities. We are paving the way to new careers, and greater mobility for the European workforce.

• www.morrisby.com

The Morrisby Organisation are leaders in psychometric assessments for career and education advice.

• www.connexions-direct.com

Offers advice on education, careers, housing, money, health and relationships for 13-19 year olds in the UK.

• www.cityandguilds.com

City & Guilds is the UK’s leading vocational awarding body – with a reputation for quality with employers, educational bodies and learners worldwide.