Careers Partnerships

The Careers department provides a range of opportunities to the City family of schools.  

- We invite all Year 12s to our annual Higher Education evening. 
- We offer a biennial Careers Convention. 
- We offer interview practice where required for university entrance. 
- We host BMAT, UCAT and LNAT preparation days for university entrance with the Lawyer and Medic Portals. The Education Department funds places for students from the City schools and we run the courses on site. 
- Our Y12 Careers Committee offers one or two events which are open to Y12 and 13 students from other schools. (This year Arts and STEM speed dating evenings in January).
- In conjunction with City of London School (CLS), we run an MMI morning for Medics. 

Aims

To ensure pupils from partner schools can benefit from events run at CLSG, particularly related to Higher Education, to aid their future plans decision making. 
 
To share resources and expertise in areas where CLSG staff have much experience, particularly relating to Oxbridge and other competitive university entrance. 

Background

- Our Higher Education evening has been a shared event for 9 years. 
 
- Our biennial Careers Convention has been a shared event for 6 years.  
 
- We have been offering mock interviews to other schools for the last 7 years. 
 
- The Medic/Lawyer Portal courses have been a shared opportunity for 7 years as well.  
 
- The Careers Committee Events have been a shared opportunity for 6 years. 
 
- The MMI mock interview morning was offered to students from the Oasis Academy the last two years.

Staff availability and time constraints limit availability

Resources

- Higher education evening: We use school facilities and provide catering and travel expenses to each HE representative who attends, as well as a thank you gift.  
 
- Biennial Careers Convention required school facilities, travel costs for exhibitors, catering and thank you gift. 
 
- Mock interviews require the time and expertise of teaching staff. 
 
- The Medic/Lawyer portal courses are funded by the COL Education Dept.  
 
- The Careers Committee events require school facilities, and careers and marketing dept time to oversee the committee’s organisation and delivery of the event. 
 
- The MMI mock interview morning requires a venue and staff time. 
 
There is no financial contribution required for any activity for students from our partner schools, although they are required to travel to us to benefit from the activities we run. 

Impact

- The impact of the HE evening is difficult to measure but the schools who have sent students have been overwhelmingly positive about the experience as an information gathering event. 
 
- The Careers Conventions have varied in layout and size over the years. Students’ seem to have found it useful when they have been able to attend but this has not always been possible due to timing/ distance constraints. 
 
- The mock interviews are just one part of the preparation required to apply to the most competitive universities. The feedback from schools is that the opportunity to have a mock interview with a subject specialist from CLSG is useful. 
 
- The Medic and Lawyer portal courses are also only part of the preparation needed to apply for Medicine, Dentistry or Law but the schools’ whose students have attended tell us that these pupils have normally achieved above average results, boosting their chances of being called to interview and having eventual overall success. 
 
- The Careers Committee events are information gathering events. Impact is difficult to measure but continual interest leads us to believe that students find these events useful. 
 
- The MMI morning is too new to know the impact but we hope students will feel it was a worthwhile experience to have attended.  

Pupil Involvement

- The pupils involved are Year 12 for the HE evening, and Medic/Lawyer Portal courses.  
 
- For mock interviews and the MMI morning it is the Year 13s (and sometimes Year 14s) who are involved. 
 
- The Careers Committee events are generally aimed at Y12 and 13 students. 
 
- The Careers Convention has varied in terms of Year groups involved, depending on student availability, logistics etc. The fair is aimed at Y9-13 in general. 

Frequency

- The HE Evening, Medic/Lawyer Portal courses, mock interviews and Careers Committee events are offered each year. We aim to add the MMI morning to this list as well. 
 
- The Careers Convention is offered every two years.