Last Thursday and Friday, our Year 12 pupils learned about the opportunities available to them after they leave Shiplake at the end of the 2020 Summer Term.
The Futures Programme was launched on Wednesday evening, as parents and pupils gathered for a drinks reception, followed by Mr Curtis’ introduction to the programme and Mrs Rapple Moore’s advice on making UCAS applications.
From Thursday morning, pupils had a wide range of lectures and seminars to choose from, with Mrs Helen Barnham talking about interviews, to Mr Richard Beasley, who discussed career paths within sales. Following break, the whole year group were introduced to Apprenticeships and tackled the myths and rumours about just how useful they are. William Westwood went on to discuss money management during university and the uncertain period between school and the working world.
After lunch, pupils were able to learn more about jobs within hospitality, teaching, finance and sports, while others took the chance to discover more about gap years and American universities.
Friday morning presented new opportunities for pupils to see what business, property and media-based jobs could have in store for them if that was their chosen path. Mr Jonathan Hardwick also visited, and was talking to our pupils about what it takes to gain entry to Oxford or Cambridge Universities.
Mr Curtis said: “For a great many, the Futures Programme offers our students their first insight into the very varied and exciting career opportunities that currently exist beyond the realms of Shiplake College. We have been extremely lucky to have sourced so many talented presenters this year and I cannot thank them enough for giving up their time to assist us with the Futures Programme. And a special mention must go to Mrs Rapple-Moore for all her work behind the scenes in making a really successful insight into the business world.”
Though the Futures Programme is now in its fifth year, Mrs Rapple Moore’s innovative ‘speed-networking’ event was a huge success. The 2-hour long exercise allowed pupils to speak to professionals from the world of architecture, investment, sport, journalism and the police, to name just a few.
Mrs Rapple Moore said: "My aim with the speed networking was to broaden the pupils' horizons in terms of all the different careers out there. I wanted to open their eyes to possible careers they might not have known about or been interested in and the best way to do this is to get people to sit down together and have a chat. I know the event was a success because of two quotes I have since had from students: 'Miss, I thought that was going to be really boring but actually it was really interesting!' and 'That was great. I think I'm going to have to rethink everything I thought I wanted to do!'. We had 18 amazing visitors with careers in all sorts of different areas including investment banking, recruitment, sports, the police, the probation service, law, finance, journalism and architecture, and their feedback was that it was the best event of its kind they had been to and that our pupils were unfailingly polite, engaged and a credit to the school."
