Monday January 28 saw our inaugural STEM Careers Day.
Pupils in years 10, 11 and 12 had the opportunity to come and meet with professionals from a range of STEM careers. The day was a huge success with excellent feedback from all involved.
Quotes from the pupils included:
“I’m totally reconsidering what I want to do as a career”
“Thank you for talking to me today! It was a really good conversation and by far my favourite table. Your job is so cool and interesting and it is always good when you’re loving it”
“I was surprised at how diverse the jobs are in drug trials. I am very grateful to you for giving me a good insight into the medical industry”
“I loved all your stories about your job and your past. You have shown me a different side to engineering”
Rebecca Kaspar (Year 11) tells us more: “STEM Careers day was a fantastic opportunity to get to learn about the different careers out there and to learn that you don’t necessarily have to stick with the path that you’re taking, if you take initiative you can almost do what you want.
“For me, the best part about it was the eye-opening experience and the enthusiasm of everyone I met.
“In terms of changing pathways, I met a neurologist (someone studying brains) at Oxford University to see the effect of antidepressants on our brain – whether they are as effective as they should be. She had never intended to head into neurology, but she worked in the area for a while and found she enjoyed it immensely.
“One piece of advice I received from everyone there and that I feel everyone should get, is that you should get into a career that you’re interested in. There’s no point working purely for money if you don’t enjoy it, especially as retirement age keeps getting prolonged so you’re undoubtedly going to be working for a good 50 to 60 years, a somewhat scary prospect.
“Regardless, the experience was exciting, enjoyable and educational (but not at all cringey as some school activities occasionally turn out to be) and I hope everyone gets to participate in something similar at some point in their lives whether or not their planning on heading into science, technology, engineering or maths.”
We can’t wait to make next year’s event bigger and better! If you’d like to get involved, then please let me know.
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