As part of our raising aspirations programme and to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 2025, organisations and local employers visited The Friary School to provide inspirational apprenticeship and careers information and guidance to our students. Tutor time activities also ran throughout the week to inform students about employment training, employability skills and apprenticeships.
Each year students have the opportunity to tell us about their careers aspirations, these are then used to invite aspiring students to events regarding their career interests. Below is a glance at some of the events at The Friary School to celebrate National Careers Week, tying in with careers and apprenticeships:
Kartar Consulting:
Student alumni talked to Year 10 and Year 13 students about apprenticeships including their own journey onto a level 6 higher degree apprenticeship in Quantity Surveying.
GE Next Engineers Experience:
Next Engineering programme leader visited to showcase this excellent opportunity for summer school. Students were inspired to hear about projects they could work on and were enthusiastic to apply to be part of the 2025 Next Engineers programme. Year 9 students that expressed interest in engineering type careers and Year 10 engineering classes were given exciting information about the free summer experience. The experience will run for a whole week with two choices of dates, 4th – 8th August or 11th – 15th August 2025.
Staffordshire, U.K. | Next Engineers
Balfour Beatty:
Students were visited by construction giant Balfour Beatty for a careers and apprenticeship awareness assembly. Students received information about varying career pathways in the construction industry and apprenticeship opportunities that could be available in the future.
ASK Apprenticeships:
Information awareness assembly on all things apprenticeship from the experts! Students were joined by an ambassador from ASK Apprenticeships that explained in depth about apprenticeships types, levels and how to start their apprenticeship journey and where and how to look for opportunities.
Find an apprenticeship – GOV.UK
More Information
For parents and carers, please click on the link below to access Choices magazine. Choices magazine is a guide to apprenticeships and technical education. Parents can access the February edition of Choices Magazine here: Choices Magazine – February Parent & Carers Guide – Amazing Apprenticeships
You can also subscribe on the link to get future monthly editions of Choices magazine sent directly to your inbox to help support your family.
Helen Barratt, Assistant Headteacher & Careers Lead, said: “It is very easy for a student or parent to say ‘get an apprenticeship’ but this is a highly competitive arena so advance planning, keeping your finger on the pulse, and obtaining the critical qualifications are essential to secure success. This can be at post-16, post-18, or degree-level (which alleviates university funding) but we can all see companies will want the best candidates – both in terms of qualifications and skills – so building up a portfolio from an early stage is only advantageous. Our National Apprenticeship Week programme is just part of the work we do in this area each and every year.”
