Icknield Community College’s CareersFest

Icknield Community College, CareersFest – Now running for it’s fourth year, and growing year on year, we strive to ensure that our students understand about the broad selection of opportunities that lie ahead of them.  Engaging them at a young age and not just in Year 11 helps our students to understand and start working towards what they may need when making their GCSE choices, to secure either a College/Sixth Form place, guide them towards a University Course, help them to understand more about the employment sector they wish to pursue as well as understand more about Apprenticeship opportunities, not just on their doorstep but in a global market.

I personally have worked very hard to initially create and now develop the Icknield Community College CareersFest.  We are a relatively small secondary school which to date does not host a Sixth Form, this means all of our Y11 students need to find themselves onward destination post their GCSE’s at ICC.  Some of our students know exactly what they would like to do, some as far as which University they would like to attend, others find the prospect of leaving school and finding a new destination to either study or work very daunting.  The purpose of hosting this event is to give both students and parents the opportunity to meet and chat with local and national employers who offer apprenticeship and career opportunities.  We also invite local Sixth Form Schools and local Colleges.

This event has become key to our students and we invite you to share with them your opportunities to their new beginnings.  Whilst we are a Watlington based school, we take students from a very diverse local geographical area, from Stokenchurch, Thame, Chinnor, Stone, Chalgrove, RAF Benson and other surrounding villages.

We plan to start this event during the school day (set-up from 12:15pm, in readiness to start at 1pm)  and make it compulsory for all of our students to attend, before opening it and inviting parents to join their children (from 3-4pm) and for them to be able to hear for themselves what’s available locally and further afield.  Many of our parents are still put off by apprenticeships as they are not aware of what they offer today, rather reflecting back to what apprenticeships were when they were at school.

If you are able to join us, I will of course share more details nearer to the event.   As always refreshments will be available.

Please contact Helen Richardson – helen.richardson@icknield.oxon.sch.uk