This week a number of students have had real-world careers input from guest speakers over TEAMs. 

Jennifer Veitch spoke to a group of Year 7 students about her role as a chemical engineer working with crude oil, on a platform 100 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, to create sustainable plastics.  The students were able to ask lots of questions about how she uses science in her job (including the periodic table), the environmental impact of manufacturing and recycling plastics and what she does day to day.

Alix Wilcox spoke to a group of aspirational Year 10 students about how her degree in theoretical physics led to a leading role in cybersecurity and software engineering.  She taught us about coding and how she designs software, as well as letting us know, that just like many jobs, there are plenty of meetings and admin!  Both speakers have varied and unusual routes into their current jobs and it was good for students to see different career pathways.

What came through from both speakers is their passion for their careers and how much they enjoy their jobs – many students picked up on this and commented on how everyone they had spoken to about careers lately seemed to like what they did.  This is one of the big messages coming through – you might not know what you want to do as a career today, but consider what your interests, likes and dislikes are and start to investigate the many opportunities available.