Hearing what our alumni have gone on to do in their careers and life after St Damian's is a great inspiration for pupils. It complements our careers programme, provides insight and real-life experiences of a variety of employment sectors. Your experiences can make a real difference to pupils who are unsure which career path might be right for them or how to get into the field you work in.

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Career Talks on a variety of topics are delivered on ASPIRE Days in October and July each year. Recently, Alumni Career Talks have included an Engineering apprenticeship with Rolls Royce & working in Performing Arts.

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Time: 1 hour

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Group size: Can be negotiated. Ideally a group of 32 pupils or a whole year group *up to around 160 pupils.

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Suggested Format for Careers Talks:

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Talk - 15 minutes

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• ​Your own pathway though education / work & training

• Qualifications needed

• Experience of working in the industry

• The varied roles and responsibilities in the company, structure of the organisation

• The different ways you work with clients

• Key employ-ability skills needed

• How people work together as a team - qualities needed

• Working hours & holidays

• Health & Safety

• A typical working day

• The challenges of the job

• Your favourite part(s) of the job

• Key advice to pupils about to do their GCSEs - the value of working hard / qualifications / high aspirations / motivation / self-belief / showing initiative etc.

• Best way into the industry for pupils thinking about it.

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The talk could include Power-point presentation / Video resources.

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Task / Challenge - 20 minutes

• Pupils work in groups and are given an activity / competitive task to do

Pupil Feedback - 10 minutes

• Pupils give feedback

Pupil Questions - 10 minutes

• Question & Answer session

Pupil Reflection - 5 minutes

• Pupils reflect on learning. Skills & Qualities needed.