Careers
Careers education is an important focus within the curriculum at Harrow High School. Learners are encouraged to develop self-awareness of their skills and abilities. The defined careers education package in place is supplemented by the work in SMSC and various subjects. A work related learning programme in Year 10 leads to real life work experience placements. In Year 11 learners are supported to consider their options and assisted to apply for further education or apprenticeships. In Year 13 learners are supported with university or employment applications.
Harrow High School works with Prospects Advice and Guidance to deliver careers information, advice and guidance to young people. The careers adviser within the school is Ms Marilyn Duvigneau.
Information for parents & carers
You are likely to be the single biggest influence on your child’s thoughts and feelings about their future career. It is really important that you are aware of the influence you have and that you try your best to make this positive, supportive and empowering.
Download the Parent Guide (below) which has lots of advice and guidance from, supporting you in how to start conversations about careers with your child, looking at skills, explaining pathways into work, qualifications and subject-specific information.
Tips to help your child with their career plans:
- Talk to them from time to time about possible careers they might be interested in and why they appeal. Remember that career choice is a personal decision.
- Encourage them to take an interest in the occupations or past careers of family members and other adults who they come into contact with, so they can learn about different career experiences and develop their own network.
- Help them to explore the possible employers, apprenticeship providers and further education courses available in your local area
- Attend open events and information sessions with them
- Encourage them to participate in out-of-school activities as they are valuable in helping them develop and demonstrate essential skills to future employers and education providers
Careers in the classroom
Our learners are supported to understand the application of learning through teachers contextualising teaching points within careers, future opportunities and the world of work.
Students feel more engaged in their learning when they perceive the relevance of what they are studying to their own and other people’s lives. This ensures learners become more aspirational, understanding that perceived barriers can be overcome and that there are numerous pathways to success.
Employers
Employers and Employees: Can you support? Can we support you?
At Harrow High School, we work with numerous employers and employees across a range of industries to give our learners exposure to a wide range of interactions and experiences.
It is our aim to provide encounters with employers and employees and experiences of the workplace, as set out below:
Gatsby Benchmark 5
- To ensure that students receive at least ONE meaningful encounter with an employer during every year they are at school.
- Increase the number of activities which are conducted within school with the support of local employers and parents.
- To ensure that students have the opportunity to improve employability skills and their understanding of and awareness of entrepreneurship
- To enable learners to gain the confidence to compete in the labour market by providing opportunities to gain the practical know-how and attributes that are relevant to gaining employment.
- Develop marketing materials for employers which will help them easily understand the impact of their involvement, the breadth of options available to them and the ways in which they can show they meet their corporate social responsibility.
- Create mechanisms where parents and alumni can express their interest to actively support employer-related activity taking place within the school.
Gatsby Benchmark 6: Experiences of the workplace
- To ensure that students receive at least ONE meaningful experience of the workplace by the end of Year 11
- To ensure that students receive at least ONE further meaningful experience of the workplace during Year 12.
- To increase the number of employer workplace visits which will take place to enable students to gain more of an understanding of the wide range of employment opportunities available within specific industry sectors
Can you support our learners?
- Careers fair
- Work Experience for Year 10 or 12
- Industry Insight visits
- Talks and presentations to groups of students
- Support with interview practice and CV writing
If you think you can support, would like to be added to our database or have any questions please email:
General enquires - Mr K Patel
Lower & Upper School - Ms M Bowen
Sixth Form - Ms H Tasnim
Labour market information (LMI)
LMI is information about the world of work. It includes information such as descriptions of jobs, the skills and qualifications needed for particular jobs and average salaries. LMI also looks at trends in the labour market in terms of which sectors and industries are in demand, which are in decline and which are expected to grow in future.
Information classed as LMI includes:
• Skills, career pathways and progression routes in the local labour market
• Qualifications, training and entry requirements
• Employment sectors, employers, jobs, salaries and employment trends
• Job demands and working life
• Financial planning
How to find LMI:
Some useful websites include:
- National Careers Service where you can find out extensive LMI on thousands of jobs.
- iCould website also provides job profiles in a more teen friendly, video format
- Buzz quiz, a matching quiz which we use in school to help students match their skills and interests to job sectors.
careerometer
Careerometer can be used to explore and compare key information about occupations, help you learn about different occupations and identify potential careers.
It provides access to a selection of UK headline data relating to pay, weekly hours of work and future employment prospects for different occupations, as well as description of the occupation.
Simply type in the title of the job you are interested in and the widget provides a series of options from which you can select the most relevant to you. You can then look up another two occupations and compare. You can also select ‘display the UK average’ and compare the information with the occupation you have selected.
Events and information sessions
We hold an annual Careers and Higher/Further Education Fair which is a key part of our strategy of supporting our learners in their university and career aspirations and aims to provide as much information as possible about the future pathways available to them.
Parents/Carers are invited to attend along with their children for you to discuss career and university aspirations with your child & exhibitors.