Information, advice and guidance surrounding future careers and university education comes in three main forms in sixth form:
Ongoing one to one support from our careers team: Our careers team is led by Academy careers advisor Beverley Evans. Beverley is based in the sixth form centre and students can book appointments with her at any point during year 12 and year 13. Whether it’s information that’s needed on specific industry sectors, help with job searches, assistance with job applications or guidance with career planning, Beverley provides invaluable support for all our sixth form students.
Higher Education and Employment Week: We want all of our students to make well informed decisions about what they choose to do after completing their time to sixth form and have aspirant goals to work towards. As a result, our Higher Education and Employment Week takes place every year for year 12 students during the summer term. This annual event involves all year 12 students being off timetable and the overarching aim is simple; to equip all students with the knowledge, information and insight needed in order to make an informed decision on what’s right for them at the end of year 13, be it a university degree, degree apprenticeship, higher level apprenticeship or other position of employment. The week is jam-packed and involves visits to universities to experience campus environments and lectures, presentations by apprenticeships providers, sessions on how to find appropriate university courses and the opportunity to engage directly with employers, university graduates and past students from our student alumni.
Weekly university and employment workshops for Year 13 students: We organise the sixth form timetable so that there are no lessons for year 13 on Wednesday afternoons. Instead, year 13 students use this time to attend either university workshops or employment workshops, depending on their post-sixth form intentions. Students joining university workshops receive support with their UCAS applications, the writing of their personal statement and any other support in preparing for progression to higher education.
Those joining employment workshops receive a wide range of support to help prepare for the world of work. Workshops are built around a number of themes including CV writing, interview practice, job and apprenticeship searches and the key employability skills employers look for.
Ormiston Forge Academy is a partner school with The Access Project. In fact, the Academy was the first school outside of London to work in collaboration with the organisation. The central aim of The Access Project is to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities. Support comes in a variety of forms:
Each year 20 students across year 12 and 13 can become involved in The Access Project’s mentoring and tutoring programme. Students can apply to be part of the programme when they enrol in the sixth form and those who apply are invited to attend a short interview.
For more information regarding The Access Project, please contact Miss Beech: [email protected]