The Next Step
From February of Year 12, you’ll have one lesson a week dedicated to higher education and careers. This includes thinking about career options in relation to choosing university courses, as well as advice on interview techniques, and building skills and experience to make you attractive to employers.
You may already have skills that will help you to choose careers and find jobs, and we’ll help you to identify these. Examples include casual work, clubs, sport, and school activities such as our student ambassador scheme, listener scheme, and mentoring younger students.
As well as this, we hold a two-day Employability event at school at the end of Year 12. This includes lots of sessions, advice and talks from local employers, ex-students, the Apprenticeship Service and the Torbay Development Agency. These give you a real insight into the world of work, interviews, personal branding and apprenticeships.
Price Waterhouse Coopers, the global financial services company, has a useful resource on developing workplace skills.
Apprenticeships are a useful route into employment for some students, giving you the chance to earn while you learn, and work towards nationally recognised qualifications. Apprenticeship Guide is a comprehensive, user-friendly and invaluable website.
Labour Market Information (LMI)
LMI is an important consideration, as changes in the labour market affect the qualifications you’ll need and the jobs available. It’s important to follow the trends and regularly check information which will affect your career. You’ll find these websites a useful source of LMI:
Writing your CV
You need to start thinking about this vital document while you’re still in school. The Curriculum Vitae is a written description of a person’s work experience, educational background and skills. In most cases it’s what prospective employers use to screen applicants, in order to decide who to interview and ultimately who to employ.
In this very competitive market, where there are plenty of vacancies but a lot of applicants, it is essential to draw up a very professional and highly effective document that will attract prospective employers to pick out your CV from all the other CVs and offer you that vital interview that will open up your career path.
Here are some of the key points:
- Use a template to get started
- Tell a story… but not your life story
- Be concise: use 1-2 sides of A4 maximum
- Run a spelling and grammar check
- Review and update your CV regularly – it’s an iterative process
- Make it fit for purpose – tweak it every time you use it so it’s appropriate for the job you’re applying for
- Set it out clearly, with sub-headings to make it easy to follow – presentation matters
For more advice on how to start or build your CV, and advice on the pitfalls, log on to the National Careers Service.
We frequently get asked to give references for students for all sorts of jobs, projects etc. If you leave us an up to date version of your CV it will help us to do this.
There are many ways to structure a CV. The requirements will change as you progress in your career and will depend on the type of career. As long as it is logical, concise and clear your CV will be fine. You can view example CV’s below, which shows the information you need to include.