A student who is making the most of all the opportunities UTC Reading can offer is marking another achievement, having become a certified Careers Ambassador for the school.
Faris Kadeb, who is studying Maths, Physics and Engineering, is an active member of the school community, where he is Student Director of Extra Curricular, and also Staff Sergeant for the school-run Combined Cadet Forces.
The Year 12 student has recently set up a series of events to benefit his classmates called Career Insight Talks, in which he has invited employers in to talk to the students about what careers in their sectors look like and how to get into them. So far Biology students have met representatives from the NHS and Engineering students have spoken with specialist chemicals company Infineum.
Faris’ most recent achievement has seen him working independently towards his Careers Ambassador accreditation with Springpod, a careers platform for students. As part of the programme, Faris learnt about the Gatsby Benchmarks (a framework for schools to assess the development of their pupils in employability skills). He also undertook a number of event planning tasks, looked at leadership and teamwork, efficient writing techniques, effective feedback and finished up by interviewing Education Development Trust careers adviser Selina Sparkles and running a LinkedIn workshop for Year 12.
Stephane Mitchell, Assistant Principal and Head of Careers, said:
“Faris now understands the ‘why’ behind the careers programme at UTC Reading and is equipped with the right skills to be able to excel in his role as Student Director of Extra Curricular. We look forward to working with him.”
Faris said:
“I’ve always had a good relationship with my teachers, especially the careers team as I work closely with them to run events, however this course made me realise how much actually happens behind the scenes and it’s not as simple as it looks!”
He is happy he took the course and says he would recommend it:
“I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is looking to become a careers ambassador as it’s helped me greatly. Setting up and running the first Career Insight Talk was really good for me, as was running the LinkedIn workshop. A lot of the things I do here at UTC I wouldn’t be able to do elsewhere and it’s massively helped me grow as a person, make really good industry links and develop skills I wouldn’t have otherwise.”
