It was a real glimpse of what the future could hold for our students in Years 8 to 11 in October, with the BBC Bitesize Careers show taking place all day in Hollinshead Hall.
Along with host, Joel Mitchell – BBC Radio Presenter, we welcomed the three panellists, Edward Gorton – Graduate Transport Planner, Chloe Seadon – Social Media Journalist at BBC Radio Stoke, and Aidan Hamilton-Parker – Food Production Technician (aka biscuit taster)!
Each of the panellists talked about their day-to-day roles and shared the route they travelled into their current job, which for some took them down a very different pathway than anticipated. For example, Covid led to Chloe’s decision to drop out of her university course and instead secure a place on the BBC Apprenticeship scheme. This was a great example of how our careers don’t always go the way we expect, which isn’t a bad thing.
Students also heard about the soft skills that employers value as much as experience or work skills, including problem solving, creativity, positivity, leadership, teamwork and listening.
After talking about all the careers information, tips, quizzes and advice on the BBC Bitesize Careers website here:www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/careers, Joel asked students in the audience about their own career goals. The students were very keen to share their dreams and, in addition to a whole team of hopeful footballers, we heard about our young people hoping to be chefs, archaeologists, beauticians, radiographers, inventors and more.
At the end of the session, students were able to question the panel about aspects of their jobs and from this we heard about the most famous person Chloe had met in her job, the starting salaries for their roles, the favourite and least favourite parts of their jobs and whether Aidan was responsible for anything other than biscuits (and the answer to this was “Yes – cream crackers”)!
We would like to say a huge thank you to the BBC Bitesize Careers team for spending the day with us today, informing and inspiring our students and helping to give them an idea of what the future could hold for them.
