2024 Chailey Careers Fayre

Last Thursday was an exciting day on the Chailey School Careers calendar, we hosted our annual Careers Fair where we had over 36 exhibitors attending the event.  Guests ranged from colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers and local employers.  After an early start the event was all set up and ready for the exhibitors to arrive at 0930hrs.  The sports hall became a hive of industry with everyone setting up their stands, laying out information, booklets, leaflets and goodies for our students to read, take home and collect during their visit.

It's a priority for students from all year groups to have a chance to visit the careers fair. We realise that though our Year 7's have only just joined us and it might seem a bit early to be thinking about their post-16 options, we feel that the experience of visiting the careers fair is beneficial for many reasons; the hall is busy so it's useful for them to understand what the event is so that when they attend in future years it's not too overwhelming, they are also very enthusiastic and love chatting to the exhibitors and by doing this are having career conversations that may spark some interest in a particular field or subject, as well as helping them to understand some of the options open to them when they move up through the school.

We opened the careers fair at 1030 for our 'quiet session' which allowed students, who prefer a calmer environment, the chance to visit the fair in advance of coming down with their year group.  After the quiet session ended the doors were opened up to the rest of the school. Students attended in their year groups, with half a year group attending at a time.   We take pride in the fact that we are able to offer all students the chance to visit the carers fair, each year group has a different reason for attending. 

• Year 8 will remember attending the fair last year and attending this year will start up those career conversations again and start them thinking about the possible Options they might want to take when in Year 9.

• For Year 9 we want the experience of attending to help them to make informed decisions when it comes to choosing their Options later in the year. 

• For Year 10 it's about making connections with colleges and providers and starting to really focus on their possible post-16 options, Year 10 are offered the chance to attend college Taster Days during the summer term and having the chance to chat about to the different colleges in attendance is helpful when it comes to deciding which Taster Days to attend.

• Finally, for Year 11 the fair offers the opportunity to chat to staff from our local colleges about the courses they offer, what college life is like and to ask any questions they have about their next steps as well as finding out about apprenticeships with providers and local employers. 

Before the event students are prepared for their visit with a presentation during C & C time. Tutors lead them in discussions and help them to think about questions they might wish to ask.  The feedback from those in attendance was that our students were all happy to speak to them, confident in asking questions and had some exciting and challenging questions to ask! We can't ask for more than that can we!

It was an absolute joy to hear the conversations that were taking place throughout the sports hall and to see our students making the most of this opportunity to learn more about the opportunities that await them when the leave Chailey School.

For a list of those who attended please see our LinkedIn post HERE

Gail Wickens

Careers & Work-Related Learning Coordinator