Student Careers

Our Careers Programme

Our students leave us with excellent qualifications; we are determined that our students continue this momentum and build amazing futures for themselves.  To achieve this, our students need to leave us as informed and confident young people who can draw upon a wealth of skills and experiences.  We take this responsibility to prepare our students for happiness and success in their lives very seriously, but alongside this, we believe that students should enjoy school and have fun whilst developing into young adults who can make a real contribution to society.  

Informed and Inspired Choices…

Leaving school is a significant milestone.  This transition is inevitably eased when students make decisions that enable them to successfully reach their potential.  Our students are encouraged to be ambitious in their planning for the future.  We believe that students need to understand not only the full range of options available to them, but also the longer-term consequences of each decision.  

To aid students’ decision-making, our careers programme includes the following features:

• SMSC lessons – students have lessons explicitly linked to careers from Year 7 through to Year 11.  These lessons are used to explore key themes, including:
  • learning pathways
  • labour market information
  • being an employee / employer
  • exploring workplaces
• Further Education – a wide range of post-16 education, apprenticeship and training providers come into school annually to meet with our students to explain what studying or working with them would involve.
• Higher Education – we have links with a number of universities, both locally and further afield.  All students have the opportunity to visit Durham University to better their understanding of what it means to enter higher education.
• Employers – we have fostered links with a number of local employers to enable our students to develop an understanding of the local labour market and what different careers and workplaces involve.
• Personal guidance – all students receive impartial one-to-one interviews in Year 11 from our qualified careers adviser and all students can access our careers drop-in clinics to seek advice about their future plans.

Ready to Compete…

Preparing an application for a much-wanted job, apprenticeship or university place is naturally a daunting process; at Sedgefield Community College, we take every step to ensure that our students feel confident.  Employability skills are developed as follows:

• Record of Achievement – all students reflect on their own strengths and experiences and highlight areas for development.
• SMSC lessons – dedicated to recruitment and selection processes, CV writing and interview skills.
• CV Writing – using Xello, our online careers package.
• Mock Interviews – all Year 10 students are interviewed by a local employer and receive feedback to enable them to improve their interview skills.
• Debating – our curriculum includes debating lessons for all students to ensure all are taught how to contribute to discussions and have their opinions heard.
• Student Leadership – students have numerous opportunities to develop their own skills and have a positive influence on their peers.

Further information about our careers programme can be found in the following documents:

Year 7 - Year 11 Careers Journey

CEIAG Careers - School Guidance (including Provider Access Statement)

Exploring Careers at Home

Whilst this page gives an overview of our careers education, more detail can be found on the Careers @ SCC site on FROG, the school’s learning platform. Extensive careers information is available on FROG, alongside a wide range of links to external websites, where more information about careers can be accessed.  Three resources are outlined below:

Xello

Xello is a programme based upon careers investigation. Students begin by completing interactive career, personality and learning style assessments to help them better understand their unique interests, skills and strengths. The results of these questions then match students up to a series of careers that align with their preferences; there is extensive information available about each career.

Students additionally use Xello to create a Record of Achievement, which is then used to inform their CV writing when they reach Year 10.  

We would strongly recommend that parents and students take the time to explore this package together.

National Careers Service

The National Careers Service provides high-quality information and independent advice and guidance to help people make the right learning and career choices. By bringing together a wealth of information on one website, it makes it easy to find information that is needed about learning or work. In addition to the website, it is also possible to contact the National Careers Service helpline for more specific advice (see website for details).

DurhamWorks

DurhamWorks is a dedicated programme for young people aged 16-24 living in County Durham who are not in education, employment or training. DurhamWorks provides a wide range of support to young people who have left school to help them plan their own futures.

Employer Links and Engagement

We recognise the importance of establishing strong links with the world of work. This helps students to develop their understanding of what employment actually involves and supports them in building up skills that will be valued in the workplace.

We are keen to build links with as many local employers as possible.  If you are a local employer who would be interested in supporting our programme of careers education, we would be delighted to hear from you.  Please contact Mrs King, the school’s Careers Leader, on a.king01@sedgefield.cc

If you are a former student and would like to support our careers programme, please visit our Alumni page.

The Quality in Careers Standard

To provide students and parents with the assurance that our careers programme is of the highest standard that it can possibly be, the school was accredited as having the prestigious Quality in Careers Standard in 2018.  This accreditation was reviewed and maintained in 2020.

Having achieved this recognition for our provision, we remain committed to further developing our practice and ensuring our students continue to benefit from an outstanding range of links with other education and training providers, as well as with many representatives of the world of work.

Reviewing our Careers Programme

We use a variety of methods to review our Careers Programme, including:

• Regularly seeking the views of students, staff, parents and external agencies.
• Analysing destination data for students who leave the school at the end of Year 11.
• Regularly reflecting on the careers lessons and careers events that take place in school.

Our careers programme is reviewed annually and the next scheduled review will take place in July 2024.

Who to Talk to if You Have a Question

Mrs King (Assistant Headteacher and Careers Leader – a.king01@sedgefield.cc) is responsible for overseeing the whole school strategy for careers education at SCC and Mr McGeary (Careers Coordinator – p.mcgeary02@sedgefield.cc) leads on key aspects of our day-to-day programme.

Both will happily speak with any student or parent who would like further advice relating to future careers intentions and how best our students can work towards achieving these. Mrs King and Mr McGeary can be contacted at their emails above or by telephoning the school on 01740 617777.  

Tutors and Year Managers play a vital role in supporting our students and they will also be able to support many of the queries that our students have or will be able to direct queries to the correct member of staff if necessary.