💡 Idea for schools when arranging careers fairs… Yesterdays Apprenticeship Academy focused on where to find opportunities. We spoke about offline opportunities, including asking about apprenticeship programmes following work experience placements and networking at careers fairs. Feedback from our participants with regard to Careers Fairs is that there was a) lots of unis and not many employers and b) too much information given in a short space of time and they couldn’t take everything on board. An idea from this could be to have smaller careers fairs that focus on sectors. Students agreed that this would be better for them and they would rather attend a smaller fair with less stands that feels more relevant to their industry interests. #sharingthegoodstuff #thevoicesthatmatter
Absolutely! From an employer view this would be really beneficial as career fairs run in seasons, it can be difficult finding the right career fairs to showcase at to really reach those who are interested in what you have to offer. We attend a lot of STEM or similar at the unis but you don't see many available at schools aimed at connecting apprentices with the right employers.
A few years ago I worked with the wonderful Paula Aldridge when she was with Gatwick Airport. We had a specialist airport careers event at one of the West Kent schools to which about a dozen other schools also brought groups of students. We had ecologists, ground crew, pilots, engineers... One of the most exciting things was that security came along and students were able to locate a suspect device under an airport vehicle. A great day and the focus really worked well.
Perhaps they were not given a layout or enough preparation time to check out possible stalls! Selective sectors might xclude choice and knowledge of what else might be of interest but nit thought of or unknown. Sometimes not enough time available for debriefing or staff/support personnel clearly visible, to support the undecided or those with questions at the event.
I've seen some schools do this really well Jessica Pieri RCDP especially if they combine the fair with a panel or speaking opportunity, such a great idea 💡
Interesting - thanks for sharing
Couldnt agree more!
Early Careers Practitioner @ BAE Systems | Championing Apprenticeships | Building FindATrainingProvider
6moThis sounds great! Another problem I have seen is missing application windows. Everyone does it slightly differently. I would love to see a website that compiles as many as possible so you don’t have to spend hours searching!