Careers Week!

Careers Week is always a busy and exciting time. Once again, the pupils and students took part in a range of activities.

At the beginning of the week, Year 10 and the Sixth Formers met police officers from Surrey Police. Everyone was interested to hear that the two officers were from a special division of the police known as the Armed Response Unit. Pupils were able to look at and, in some cases, try on the special equipment the officers need for their job. The officers explained how they have to take their training very seriously and consider carefully how every situation is handled to keep the public and themselves safe.

It was fascinating for the Key Stage 3 pupils to discover that a number of staff members have worked in completely different jobs before joining St Dominic’s. Bee keeping, landscaping, construction, drama, hospitality, press officer, toy shop owner and nursing were all represented at a staff careers carousel where the pupils listened to short talks, looked at photographs and took part in some activities about each career area. Mrs Jukes, your bee-keeping outfit is amazing!

The middle of the week brought a visit from Christoph Bitten CEO of Rubik Brand Ltd. As well as bringing along some Rubik cubes, he took the time to explain how the company owns the rights to the world famous Rubik cube and grants the licence for all those wanting to use the brand, for example within homeware and clothing. He also explained about the development of the cube, and the roles within the company. After Christoph’s talk, Noah from Year 11 commented ‘it was a very informative talk about his role and the workings of the company as a whole. I found it interesting and captivating and he held a good rapport with us the audience. I found it was interesting to hear about the different roles in the company and the jobs that they do. On behalf of me and all the other pupils I would like to say a big thank you to Christoph for this experience.’

Everybody enjoys a good movie and Guardians of the Galaxy is a favourite with many of the pupils, so it was exciting to hear that our speaker on Thursday had actually worked on the movie as a film compositor. Mike Boden came to talk about his job in visual effects within the movie industry. We found out that a compositor constructs the final image within the movie by combining layers of already created material. Mike explained that it is detailed work, it can take him a whole day to complete work on just one second of film. Mike also told us about other jobs within visual effects such as modellers, rotoscopers and paint artists. It was interesting to hear that some people get into this career area by starting as a runner or by finding an apprenticeship with a visual effects company. The pupils are all going to look for Mike’s name in the in the credits when they next go and see a movie!

The fire service also supported us this week by giving a talk to our older pupils. Stuart explained how the role is changing and that the fire service assist with a variety of situations, such as flooding, rescue from heights, terrorism response and animal rescues. He gave useful information to the pupils about entry requirements, salary and fitness expectations for the fire service.

We want to say congratulations to Louis in Year 11 for winning the careers poster competition based around the dream theme of becoming a West End performer.

Also to Falcons class for jointly winning the Key Stage 2 poster competition with their large poster outlining a range of dream careers including: comic artist, vet, ice cream server, train ticket collector, Legoland worker and YouTuber.

Well done to all those pupils in Key Stage 2 who came dressed up to represent a career. You all looked amazing!