UTC alumni were among the employers on site in UTC Reading’s main hall on Thursday for a careers fair, incorporating a variety of employers, FE providers and universities.
Josh and Cerys from Softcat
One pair – Josh Butler and Cerys Rayner – now work for IT specialists Softcat and came back to their old school to speak to students from Years 10 through to 13 about the opportunities and steps involved in landing an apprenticeship at the firm.
“It’s weird to be back,” said Cerys, who works in Cloud solutions, “but it’s nice to be able to show the students what they can achieve, that they have bright futures and with high ambition there’s so much they can do.”
Softcat were one of around 20 companies and education providers present for the fair, which for the first time invited parents to attend.
The value of these careers fairs can’t be underestimated – Nicole Waterman from Thames Water explained: “The exposure the students get at these fairs to so many different roles and areas of life is really important. One company can offer so many opportunities and it’s hard to even know what these are when you’re young. So being able to talk to employer’s face to face is important.”
Her colleague Stella Newman added: “It’s nice that so many companies here have come together to share with the students what the correct steps are to getting into these companies. It’s good for us too – we have recruited quite a few apprentices from UTC Reading – we can take their names here at the event and support them through the application process.”
Another ALET alumni was Jasmine Effanga-Peter, who used to go our sister school UTC Heathrow and is now part-way through a degree apprenticeship in sustainability with Siemens, a role which sees her working with companies and local government on their carbonisation and energy efficiencies.
She’s been talking to students about the differing roles within her company – engineering, finance, software development. She said: “It’s quite nostalgic being here, it reminds me of UTC Heathrow. This is my first careers fair, and it’s been great talking to the students about the range of careers available at Siemens and the steps they could look at if they want to work here.”
Amazon Web Services
Isa Ribera and Priyankaa Arkalgi have been speaking mainly about computer science and project management roles at Amazon Web Services.
Priyankaa said the students had “a mixed interest in wanting to follow university or apprenticeship routes and wanted to know what kinds of degrees they should be looking at for jobs here. But that’s the point – there are so many routes in – you can follow electrical, finance, civil engineering, tech skills…”
“They need to think outside the box,” Isa followed up. “They are lucky at the UTC – when I was their age we were not as informed about career opportunities and didn’t have the exposure to employers.”
Sam Earl used to be a primary school teacher before moving to her role of school outreach at AWE. She happily spoke to the students about the benefits of working for a firm that prioritises staff welfare, including working a nine-day fortnight.
“We have taken on quite a few UTC students as apprentices,” she said. “Their engineering and IT background is exactly the right combination for AWE so we’re very happy to be here today chatting to the students who are our potential talent!”
Royal Berks NHS
Employers from the public sector were there, with members of the forces talking everything from engineering to IT to vehicles; Thames Valley Police explaining the benefits of following an apprenticeship route rather than traditional route into policing; Royal Berkshire NHS demonstrated the vital role clinical engineers and IT operators play in keeping the service running.
The students were certainly engaged throughout the day, asking lots of questions and gathering lots of leaflets (and freebies on the tables!)
Year 13’s Devrim, Kelsung and Leeraa said they “Enjoyed walking around the stalls as it’s good to see the differences between university and apprenticeships.”
Year 13’s Patryk found the employers: “Easy to talk to and it’s good to do career research face to face with people working in those jobs. I’m looking at universities too – I haven’t decided yet, so this day helps.”
Year 10’s Isaac, who already knows he wants to go into cyber security said the day was “A great opportunity to get insight into how to go about getting into the industry and qualifications I need to get there.”
Thank you to all those who took time to visit us: MiCim, bcs, Collins Aerospace, Softcat; Siemens; Thames Valley Police; University of Hertfordshire; University of Derby; University of Brunel; University of Portsmouth; Oxford Brookes; SSE; Henley College; TEDI; AWE; Iconic; Infineum; Thales; NHS Royal Berkshire; Thames Water; Activate Learning; Amazon Web Services, Royal Navy; Royal Airforce; WSP; Wood; IChemE
