Pathways to the future

On Wednesday evening we welcomed a huge range of exhibitors to participate in our Careers Fair. The event, held every two years, provides an invaluable opportunity for girls in Year 9 to Upper Sixth to meet a huge range of professionals from a variety of industries. The purpose of the Fair is to enable the girls to find out more about the training and employment options available to them in the future.

The industries represented included: Law, Finance, Hospitality, Charity, Marketing, Emergency Services, Armed Services, Technology, Media, Engineering, Retail, Publishing, Business Consulting and Building Services. We also welcomed representatives from Higher Education Institutions and Apprenticeship providers. Quite a number of the visitors were former pupils of Pipers who were able to share their personal accounts of the paths they had taken since leaving school.

During the evening girls and their parents had the opportunity to hear from some of the exhibitors in a series of short talks. Themes included:

• Higher Education and the UCAS process
• Interviews - An employer’s perspective
• Gap Year benefits and opportunities
• Apprenticeship types and opportunities
• How to land that competitive, exciting job

Head of Careers, Mrs Bevan, said “We were delighted to welcome exhibitors from such a breadth of industries to our Careers Fair. I’m sure that for the girls the experience has, for many, inspired them to consider a career they may not have thought about before. For others, I know that it has reinforced their desire to follow a particular path. Being able to provide our girls with a forum in which they have the opportunity to talk to professionals and access advice about how they should go about securing their ideal job is an opportunity that will benefit them all enormously.”