Flightpaths to the Future: Careers Advice at Leighton Park

Morrisby are a market-leading careers, destinations and work experience service provider who work closely with Leighton Park students under the direction of Head of Careers, Sally Saunders.  Reflecting on the careers pathway, Sally commented, “I always think that we’re really lucky to be able to have even a small part in in our students decision-making for the future. It’s quite a big investment to have Morrisby here but we feel it is important enough that we want to make it because we can help students earlier with their decisions and their thinking of what’s appropriate, what are the different routes into different courses or careers. It can be quite difficult if a student has made a choice and they might not have the right courses or qualifications to get them onto the next stage, so if we can do all we can to mitigate that, it means there’s a greater likelihood that we’ll get the right children on the right courses and then they’ll be happy and they’ll also commit to their own progress.”

Following a preliminary questionnaire in Year 9 and a short report to inform GCSE choices, the Year 10s undertake a longer survey generating a 40-page report detailing all their strengths, which courses and pathways would allow them to get into certain careers that support those strengths, and giving them a list of possible professions. Each student is then invited to a one-to-one 30-minute careers interview with an impartial careers advisor in advance of their needing to make Sixth Form course selections in the Autumn Term of Year 11. Over the week commencing 12^th May, our Year 10s have been engaging with Morrisby advisors online. Sally enthused “This cohort have probably been the best in terms of organisation and it’s another opportunity for some interview practice, to meet someone who doesn’t know them and to make an impression on them who then also can give them some really good advice.”

Hermione (Year 10) was pleased with the outcome of her call, “The experience was really good. My ambition for the future is to try and get a physical job in which I am active a lot of the time and isn’t an office job. I have been looking at aircraft engineering that came up on my Morrisby profiling and interested me. We talked a lot about it and we came to a solution that an apprenticeship would be a good option to go for and we also talked about what A Levels I could take to help me get those apprenticeships.  I think the most useful part of it was talking to someone who knows what paths you need to take to get to the jobs you’re looking at.”

Year 10 parent, Lucy, was pleased with her daughter’s experience saying: “Just wanted to say thank you for scheduling the meeting Sarah has today.  She found it really useful and has come home buzzing. I gather the lady has other info she’s to send through to Sarah which she’s quite excited about too.”