Career Education
The objective of the Career Education department at Eton is to help students to understand the need to develop their employability throughout their time at school. The department creates opportunities to enable students to be better informed about the world of work. Students at schools local to Eton College are invited to participate in all career seminars and networking events.
VocSoc - Career Seminars
The programme of regular once or twice-weekly ‘VocSoc’ career seminars is offered out to all pupils in the TVLP partnership, irrespective of year group. The talks expose all pupils to speakers from various sectors and hopefully inspires them to think about the world of work.
ttendees from local schools have enjoyed in-depth insights about careers such as Journalism, Documentary Filmmaker, City Careers, Entrepreneurship, Solicitor, Ski Careers, Investment Management, Sustainability Finance, Marketing, Civil Service Fast Stream and Veterinary Medicine as well as talks from a whole raft of speakers who have spoken to vocational societies, such as LawSoc, MedSoc and Journalism Society. Recordings of most seminars are available to all students on a TVLP password protected site, in case students have been unable to attend in person that evening.
Student Consultancy
Social Action and Career Education came together for the Student Consultancy programme, where Etonians act as consultants for a charity under the guidance of the Social Action Mentor and the Deputy Director of Career Education. In 2022, 10 pupils worked with Project Luangwa, a charity that sponsors education in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, and with Honeypot Children’s Charity, which supports young carers in the UK. Eton students were taught how to research and compile a report about a project put forth by the charities, not only gaining some work experience but also knowledge about the charitable sector.
Project Luangwa employed our student consultants on two different projects; first, they were given the task of following up with students Project Luangwa had sponsored through education to learn how they can continue to support them. Second, they required assistance on how to make their café, which they run to fundraise and make people aware of their work, more profitable. The project with the Honeypot Children’s Charity involved surveying their supporters to learn about how their experience could be enhanced.
Eton students worked in teams to tackle these projects from January to May 2022. With two lessons a week over two terms, they receive some lectures to learn about Management Consultancy, whilst other sessions are focused on project work. Throughout the process, they engaged with representatives from the two charities whilst they carried out their research. A full report with all data and analyses was compiled, and the entire course culminated in final presentations over Zoom to their clients.
The charities were extremely grateful for the support the Eton students were able to provide, whilst the students learned some important business skills and gained lots of knowledge about the charity sector.
Gap Year Fair
The Gap Year Fair was held in June and showcased 19 exhibitors from various gap year providers. Providers included cookery schools, conservation programmes, travel companies, and language course providers, just to name a few. Along with Year 12 Eton students, students from partner schools also attended. This included students from Holyport College and Windsor Boys’ School, who were very excited to get the chance to meet with gap year providers and learn more about the opportunities available to them.
TVLP Career Education Network
The Career Education department initiated the TVLP Career Education Network in 2021 to create a community of practice with the view of meeting regularly to collaborate on career related events and to share ideas. The network met in October 2022 and the following schools were represented at this meeting:
Eton College
The Windsor Boys’ School
Beechwood School
St Mary’s Ascot
The meeting was also joined by the Thames Valley Learning Partnership Coordinator and a guest speaker from Amplify Trading. He introduced attendees to the benefits of the simulated trading platform that can be used to show students the work involved in some City careers.
Pupil Involvement
80 external students attended.
19 events.
Frequency
A workshop date has been agreed for 2023 and pupils from all partnership schools are invited.
