National Careers Week 2022: Connecting Curriculum to Careers

To mark National Careers Week on 7-12 March, Alleyn’s School chose an important focus which can be one of the trickier things to deliver in a school careers programme, linking the curriculum to careers.

This year’s focus was to explore the connective tissues between individual subjects that our pupils do on a daily basis to potential future jobs; what is the path from maths to finance, how do you start in Alleyn’s Drama and arrive at a West End musical? What can being good at less obviously vocational subjects like Classical Civilisation, Geography or Chemistry lead to?

Many pupils from Year 8 – Year 12 had the chance to explore this as part of the week. Unlike most careers events we hold where pupils know there is a speaker coming, in National Careers Week, most of the guests were a surprise for the pupils with the speakers visiting them in their timetabled lessons, to do the talks. Organised and delivered by the Alleyn’s Careers Office, the week was packed with talks and visits by external speakers from the world of art and design, communications, drama, finance, technology, commerce and more.

Students heard directly from professionals in these fields who described first-hand how their specific subject choices – the choices that the pupils were experiencing then and there as part of their general, GCSE or A-Level programme, informed their later careers. Many of the week’s visitors were Alleyn’s alumni and parents who could share the very real and relevant experience of these inspiring journeys, information about their current and previous roles and a general overview about their industry. They were also able to highlight the very real experience of ‘squiggly’ careers, highlighting that there often isn’t a linear path, and jobs and career interests can change and develop as you progress through your career. Importantly, it was an opportunity for pupils to ask questions.

Understandably, younger groups in the lower and middle school often struggle to define what they want to be “when they grow up” and it can be difficult to make sense of how their love of history, for example, can translate to a job in the future or serve any purpose at all. For the A-level students, who had already made those subject choices and may have started the process of narrowing down what they may do at degree-level (if they go the university route post-Alleyn's), they could see that real-world possibilities and avenues for opportunities were within reach.

Our career programme at Alleyn’s is built on the building blocks of “careers curiosity” in the lower school, which continues in the middle school where “careers exploration” is added - both of which continue into the upper school and beyond where “careers decision-making" becomes a factor. It is important to note that curiosity at all stages is the foundation of everything and it was important, as part of these National Careers Week activities, to hear about how someone went from a Classics degree to working in senior advertising sales at Amazon and for another, a Human Geography degree (after her A-Levels at Alleyn’s) led to working as a consulting analyst at Ogilvy, just over 8 years since she left school. Every journey was fascinating and hopefully reminded Alleyn’s pupils that no careers decision is a “final” one and understanding what subjects you enjoy is one of the many factors which can help to influence what jobs you explore.

In several of the talks, the speakers expressed how in their current careers, they had drawn on experiences and lessons from school. Claudia Beith (Tulley’s 2013), a strategist at Ogilvy, who read Human Geography at university, told the class how her interest in human geography had led her to research and analysis of consumer and market behaviour for brands.

Emma Sweetland, an Alleyn’s parent who founded a music management company , talked about how studying music gave her a real insight into the differing needs of musicians and was motivated to launch a music management company that works creatively with individual artists to find the best roles for them – one which in her case has a commitment to chamber music ensembles being at the heart of what they do.

A common thread ran through all the talks this week; the subjects you study at school and university may not always follow a straight path to your career choices. Guy Podjarny summed it up by saying that he had no idea where his love of computing would lead. It was only having been conscripted into the Israel army that he realised that his talent and interest had a real use. He is now the Founder and President of Snyk, a 1000+ person software company focused on cyber security. He encouraged our pupils to stay curious and to follow their passion, whether it be computer science, geography or maths, and to collaborate with others so that they can share expertise and grow.

For careers professionals in schools, it is crucial that we continuously bridge the academic world and the world outside with talks and workshops by professionals who can demystify careers and inspire our students to keep exploring through talks, networking, volunteering, work experience and so much more.

As bright and well researched as any student can be, the very best way to start the journey towards a fulfilling career is to establish what your interests may be and start getting work experience in a wide range of areas (even if you think you know exactly what you want to do). Linking careers to the curriculum is another way to introduce a variety of roles to our very talented young people and hopefully, as a result of this and other careers events – they build their tenacity and determination to step out of their comfort zone, approach organisations about learning and working and recognise that it is never about a particular destination but is about enjoying the journey. HUGE thank you to all of our guests who were involved in National Careers Week 2022 and to our academic departments who accommodated them.

By Gina Visram, Head of Careers

National Careers Week (NCW) is a celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. The aim is to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar to help support young people leaving education.