Careers Fair in School
Several hundred secondary school pupils attended a lively careers fair held at Heathside School Weybridge yesterday, March 4th. Weybridge based women soroptimists on the Girl STEMSTAR Working Party presented information from a number of education sources relating to study choices, post 16 GCSE study routes and a careers to boys and girls aged 11-18. The school’s timing was perfect with the event taking place during National Careers Week (4-9th March) and just ahead of British Science Week (8-17th March).
National Careers Week is an annual event focused on helping students decide on career options as part of their pathway through subject choices and route of qualification. Government and business investment in apprenticeships from age 16 upwards to adult learning is at an all time high. There are resources for adults, parents, students and sponsors including Nat West and others provide access to opportunities for virtual work experience and learning as part of preparation for interviews and job applications. The week long ‘Virtual’ Online Careers Fair is open to all and provides further visibility for employers and those exploring career options to talk.
Soroptimists helped launch the British Science Week National Poster Competition to some 300 students in Year 7,8 and 9 at Cobham Free School in a partnership which will reward female aspiration in Science, Computers and Maths. An invitation to display careers information at the Heathside School Careers Fair gave a further chance to publicise the many ‘at home’ fun science experiments which families and friends can plan to do over Easter to encourage understanding of how exciting science is. The national projects e.g. Greenpeace led Big Plastic Count for families to do between 11-18th March and the Woodland Trust’s extensive data collection for the 300 year old continuous record of the impact of time and climate on ecosystems and nature were also showcased.
Careers Stand
The careers stand was able to highlight soroptimists goals to improve prospects for girls education and towards closure of the gender gap in the workplace. We encourage girls to consider their subject options carefully and add a STEM related subjects including Maths, Computer Sciences, DT, Physics, Chemistry and Biology beyond GCSE. Girls showed particular interest in hearing about the #SmashingStereotypes ‘YouTube’ #BSW videos of real working women in novel career paths…and roles more characterised by male role models. They were also curious to learn about soroptimists and our community service projects around the globe. The daily advocacy and data collection on equity issues project results are submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women annually.
Exhibitors and Successes
As one of over 20 career display stands covering local colleges, RAF, The Police, Universities, Sport Coaching qualifications and industry leaders like British Airways, BP, Unilever and P&G we hosted pupils throughout the day. Six soroptimists with expertise in STEM, student coaching and industry careers chatted to students, handed out information flyers and referred students to the #BSW and #NCW resources/information for each age group. An chocolate egg competition drew queues as the jar was passed around and the mathematicians tried working our the volume/area and number of potential eggs, whilst and others diligently counted the outer lying eggs and extrapolated to guess their final answer. There were canny ‘bribes’ offered for help…some close team work between students to get their best answer and pleas to know if there was one large egg hiding inside to thwart everyone! We had to break off to print more sheets, with over 340 plus entries it took a while to find the correct one! Two students came closest.. next week two students will be awarded SI Weybridge Easter Egg jars at assembly.
Simply Amazing!
Our team found the students charming, enthusiastic, patient and really curious, we had so many great conversations and were really pleased to hear how girls especially in the younger age group simply love science. Psychology, Sport Science/PE and Forensics seemed a common theme amongst older students. The young men excelled at solving the Rubik’s cubes on the stand but as the day progressed more and more younger girls attempted to match the boys in the time taken to complete the puzzles. One particularly inspiring girl was extraordinary talking about her joint interest in getting involved in projects which could help other girls and gaining experience in the police alongside her interest in sciences. A future literary scholar could explain how hooked he was since age 10 on Warrior Cats novels, his patience in explaining each cats role encouraged me to look it up and add it to my children’s gift book list, his clarity of thought and explanation was remarkable, an english scholar/teacher in the making! All in all a successful day as a #soroptimistatwork! We are on the lookout for women with an interest in STEM projects, get in touch!
So very exciting for our team to be involved with both schools. We hugely appreciate the opportunities.