Careers IAG and Work Experience
Throughout their time in Sixth form, students are encouraged to think about their futures beyond Belper School. They should be researching and considering a range of options including university, apprenticeships, a year in industry, gap year, employment or college courses. Sources of information and guidance are provided by tutors, curriculum staff, external speakers and Eleanor Snape, who is a fully qualified Careers Adviser, and employed by school.
Eleanor‘s role is to give guidance and direct both students and staff towards independent and impartial careers information. School provides materials from a range of sources including the school careers library, school subscriptions to web based career packages: Higher Ideas and Job Explore Database and access to a range of web based careers information.
Specific details and links can be accessed from the Careers section of the schools web page: CAREERS at Belper School (Click Here)
Students are encouraged to have a careers guidance interview with Eleanor who can also access External Careers Advisers, if appropriate.
Sixth Form: Work Experience
Following a recent government review of post 16 study programmes, all 6th form students are now required to complete at least 1 week of work experience/equivalent while they are in Year 12. The Department for Education states that the placements should be “Purposeful, substantial, offer challenge and be relevant to the young person’s study programme and career aspirations.”
On this basis, we will consider Belper School’s Enrichment programmes in NCS, DofE Silver and Gold, the World Challenge and the CSLA Level 3 Award (Community Sports Leadership) as potential alternatives to work experience if we believe the skills acquired through these activities are directly relevant to their preferred post 18 option. However, students who do complete one of these ‘alternative’ activities will still be encouraged to complete work experience too.
In order to complete the work experience placement students must follow the following procedure:
- Register your interest in setting up a placement with Sally Hitchcock and collect a work experience pack.
- Approach employers who may be able to offer relevant work experience to you. From previous experience, we have found that students have most success in securing a placement when they approach family or friends who can offer relevant work experience so we suggest that students take this approach first. If there are no family or friends options then students should refer to the list of employers that can be accessed via the links below. These lists show employers that have agreed in principle to offering work experience placements with Derbyshire County Council.
- Once a relevant employer has been identified the student must complete the ‘Work Experience Partnership Agreement Form’ in conjunction with the employer and parents, this must then be returned to the Sixth Form. As part of this process the student must complete the ‘Medical Health Check’ form and give it to the employer with the letter of understanding between the school and the employer.
- If the placement is during term time, students must complete a Notification of Absence Form at least 2 school days before their placement starts to ensure that teaching staff are aware of the time they will be missing from lessons – this should be returned to the Sixth Form office.
- While on placement, students must complete the ‘Work Experience Booklet’ as evidence of their placement. This must include a brief reference from the employer commenting on the students’ performance. This booklet must be handed in to the Sixth Form so that we can keep an accurate record of your placement before returning it to the student for future reference.
Although we appreciate that arranging this work experience placement is an additional burden in what is already a very busy year for students, we do believe that it will be of significant benefit to students as they prepare for their potential careers and plan their next steps.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Paul Brumby
(Head of Sixth Form)
Below are links to some of the websites we currently encourage students to use:
