With an increased number of talks this year, and standing room only in many of them, the 2019 Year 11 Careers Convention has been hailed as a great success – thanks largely to the support of Old Elizabethans.
Representatives from 35 different companies and organisations, featuring a good mix of alumni and other visitors, met boys and their parents as Year 11 were starting to consider their future career paths.
Professions represented ranged from medicine to app development, and from chemical engineering to the law.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was another tremendous evening and we are always very grateful to all those OEs who give up their time to come back and help out our current students. The boys benefit immeasurably from the advice that they receive, not least because seeing alumni thriving in their various careers is in itself a source of inspiration and confidence to them.
“At this stage in their education, it is as important for the boys to develop the soft skills they will need when planning for life after school – in order that they can actually achieve their desired outcomes – as it is to provide insight into the many different options available to them.”
The main Careers Convention was held in the Shearly Hall, while the nine talks – several of which were repeated three times during the course of the evening – were delivered in classrooms. The talks included popular career areas, such as Dr Nirmal Wilwaraarachchi (OE 1996-2002) on dentistry and Joseph Vinson (OE 2007-2013) on Getting a job in Tech.
There were, however, talks giving more general advice about topics such as studying abroad and about choosing and progressing a career, such as the presentation by Kam Taj (OE 2004–2011) on How to find your ideal career.
Alumni had a chance to catch up with each others at a reception hosted by the School before the event.
The evening also benefited from experts attending from organisations with which the School has strong partnerships, such as the National Citizen Service (whose summer programme is always popular with Year 11 boys), the STEM Ambassadors programme and the RAF.
- For more photos from this event, go to QE Connect.