We want Beths students to . .
be empowered
achieve within the world of work
have successful, rewarding and fulfilling careers
be motivated and happy to engage with the challenges of life.
Careers in Key Stage 3
Year 9 Option choices, April/May: What’s the relationship between options and careers? Equipping our students to understand what is right for them as an individual and the flexibility of their choices. In a changing work market, we will share insights on what employers are looking for, how jobs will change in the future, and how they can be prepared going forward.
Careers Spotlight Form time activities throughout the academic year for years 8 and 9, encouraging engagement with Unifrog.
Careers in Key Stage 4
Student Voice - Careers Survey and Careers Prefects
As the students begin years 10 and 11 we encourage them to share their views about careers and aspirations for the future in our Careers Surveys. The results of these surveys, combined with strategic discussions with the Head of Year and Key Stage 4 Co-ordinator, allow us to reflect the interests of the students and their aspirations for the future, whilst broadening their horizons with alternative opportunities. The Careers Junior Prefects are a group of year 11 students who work with the Careers Team.
Careers Guidance
We have two trained Careers Advisers from Prospects who run 1-1 guidance interviews with our year 10 and year 11 students.
Careers in Key Stage 5
Information and Guidance
The Careers team shares key information and resources with the Sixth Form, to students to help them make informed choices. We do this in a variety of ways but one of the main ones is via the Careers channel on Teams. This is updated all the time with information that we receive from universities and career companies and covers a wide range of topics including open days, apprenticeship opportunities, employability tips and events. When required, the Prospects Careers Adviser advises Sixth Form students on potential pathways and concerns.
Student Voice – Careers Survey
We have a large number of external students who start Beths in Year 12, and our Careers Survey gives us the opportunity to discover their career and post-18 aspirations. The most popular careers identified were medicine, law, economics, banking and finance. Engineering, particularly software engineering was frequently mentioned, as was computer science.
Skills London, 25 November 2022
Year 13 students had an opportunity to meet employers and training providers at the national Skills London event at ExCeL London. Feedback from our students included “It was an enjoyable and informative experience that gave me more knowledge on what career I want to pursue” and “Meeting different companies and partaking in interactive activities were enjoyable.”
Outside speakers and former students
Stephanie Coker is a family law barrister at 5 St Andrews Hill and a PhD candidate who left Beths in 2010. She spoke with Mr McCartin’s year 12 and year 13 Law classes about the path to becoming a barrister, skills needed to succeed at the Bar and a day in her life as a barrister.
Stephanie with year 13 student Gabrielle Pegus - December 2022
The students enjoyed practicing a good handshake -January 2023
In our Employability Skills workshops outside speakers (and parents of students at Beths), Rux Dariescu and Cophia Yau, helped year 11 students to explore writing a CV and identify key interview skills.
Harry Henderson left Beths in 2015. After studying for a degree in architecture, he now works at Studio Egret West . He spoke with Year 13 and Year 10 Art students about his architecture training, and how to communicate the project vision, and turn drawings and plans into physical reality. Plus X in Brighton is one of the projects that Harry has worked on. - December 2022
Harvey Maunders and Victor Adegbesan are Software Engineering degree apprentices at Morgan Stanley, studying towards a degree in Digital and Technology Solutions at Queen Mary University of London. They were able to pass on valuable insights and tips into the application and interview process to year 12 and 13 students during National Apprenticeship Week. - February 2023
Lauren Hallworth is currently a Level 5 Business Remediation Consultant with Ernst and Young. She spoke about the opportunities for degree apprenticeships at EY in tax, consulting, assurance, strategy and transactions. Her description of the 7-stage interview process that she had to go through to achieve her position at EY hopefully dispelled any thoughts that apprenticeships are for people who can’t get into university! - February 2023
Joe Rees spoke with Year 8 and Year 12 Geography classes. Joe is doing a Civil Engineering apprenticeship with Wentworth House and London South Bank University. He is a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and has worked on different projects including 100 Fetter Lane and the Greenlink Converter project. - February 2023
Former Beths Head Girl Madeleine Smith is Population Health Intelligence Officer apprentice with the NHS. Her degree apprenticeship in Public Health is with Bromley Healthcare and the University of Coventry. She spoke to Year 12 Biology and Chemistry classes about her multidisciplinary role and the many areas that Public Health covers: from paramedics to physiotherapists, AI to Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Rapid Response Units, Home Health and rehabilitation, communication and messaging to virtual wards. - February 2023
Careers Fair, 13 July 2023
Students from years 9, 10 and 12 visited our Careers Fair on Thursday 13th July. The Careers Fair is a great way to start exploring options, making professional contacts and learn about the vast range of opportunities that are open to our students.
Insightful and knowledgeable offering information regarding both workplaces and other opportunities. (DG, 10E)
The event provided a valuable platform to interact with diverse exhibitors and gain insights into different industries and career paths. It was exciting to see the range of opportunities available, and it has certainly broadened my perspective on potential career choices. (AA, Careers Prefect, 10H)
Showed me some ideas about my future that I hadn’t considered (OW, 9B)
IT WAS SO GOOD! I got a great insight on what subjects can keep your doors open, what I need to do for Psychology and how big the campus for universities are. (KP, 9C)
Amongst the 34 exhibitors were thirteen universities, including Russell Group universities (Birmingham, Nottingham, Southampton and Warwick) plus representatives from the University of London (Royal Holloway and City), and the universities of Greenwich, Loughborough, Reading, Portsmouth, Leicester, Lancaster and Lincoln.
University of Warwick . . . gave me a lot of insight into the degree I’m looking to complete without being able to attend an open day. Also shared resources on how to better tailor our personal statement to my field of choice. (CA, 6C1, Year 12)
There were also Further and Higher Education providers including Lewisham, London South East and Rose Bruford Colleges, the London Institute of Banking and Finance and TEDI (The Engineering and Design Institute).
Both Lewisham and Darenth Valley Hospitals brought a range of medical specialists, including speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, nurses, a podiatrist, dietician and occupational health officer.
The practicals were engaging and creative (AS, 9C)
The nurses . . . were very engaging whilst talking to and I even learnt how to do CPR. (JN, 9A)
Reflecting the aspirations of Beths students there were employers across a wide range of sectors: Medicine, Finance, Engineering and Construction, Hospitality, and Public Services including the RAF). Our Careers Adviser, Maria Elia, from Prospects also provided individual guidance for students across the year groups.
Reflection from EL, Careers Prefect, 10H: The Beths Careers Fair is a fantastic event to meet new people whilst discovering future pathways. As an aspiring software engineer, I spoke to several top 20 UK universities as well as the industry-leading employers: Ernst & Young and National Grid Group. I gained a valuable insight into the computing industry through friendly, passionate and supportive representatives who introduced the hundreds of opportunities ahead of me. Additionally, I was thrilled to learn that numerous computing courses provide an option to study abroad, where my current intention is to complete a computing degree with a year abroad in Hong Kong. This would lead to an excellent experience living in a different country, learning about new cultures and languages. All in all, the event serves as a way to gain a clear understanding of your future as well as many free items!
The feedback from exhibitors was extremely positive with 97% rating the Careers Fair Excellent or Good. Every exhibitor said that our students were very engaged or engaged, and all of them said that they were extremely or very likely to attend another event at Beths in the future.
Whole School Careers Weeks
Green Careers Week, 7-12 November 2022
The first ever Green Careers Week gave us the opportunity to work with the Beths Eco Club to explore the current and future careers which will help the planet.
Wellbeing Week, 14-18 November 2022
Careers focused on why wellbeing at work is important to both employees and employers and popular benefits that promote wellbeing. We challenged students to consider relative importance of financial gain or career satisfaction (and whether it’s possible to have both!).
National Apprenticeship Week, 6-10 February 2023
An increasing number of our students are interested in apprenticeships, and National Apprenticeship Week gave us a great opportunity to explore this pathway.
In our 2022 Careers survey to year 12 students a quarter of our students reported that they were considering applying for an apprenticeship.
There are almost 90 universities who partner with employers to offer degree apprenticeships, including the Universities of Exeter, Warwick and Queen Mary's London, all of whom are Russell Group.
National Careers Week, 6 to 11 March 2023
There was a full programme of events across the school to celebrate National Careers Week.
Each form in Key Stage 3 was allocated a letter of the alphabet and had to come up with as many jobs or careers that begin with that letter. We wanted the students to understand the range of careers that are available now and think about those that they might consider in the future. Across the whole of Key Stage 3, the students came up with over 2000 careers which was amazing.
Year 11 Careers Prefects worked with the Careers Team to produce an assembly for Key Stage 4. In PSHCE students in Years 12 and 13 were given a recorded presentation on LinkedIn, helping them to build and enhance their professional profile. This was an incredibly useful session for our students – with both practical and strategic input – from a senior account manager from LinkedIn.
