Careers

SCWA is in a unique position to benefit from an extensive range of opportunities offered by our Trustees, The Worshipful Company of Stationers’ and Newspaper makers.  One such opportunity is the Stationers’ Mentoring Programme.   The scheme involves business leaders who volunteer their time to offer support and guidance on a wide range of education and career focused areas.  The programme is targeted at Year 12 students and launches with a speed networking meeting to enable students to be matched with mentors which would be most beneficial to them.   Students keep in regular contact with the mentors over the course of their time at Arden Sixth Form.

“The Stationers’ Mentoring Programme has helped me massively with narrowing down career choices, CV writing, interview techniques and many more assets which paints the picture of the future ahead of me.  Each Stationer specialises in a wide range of careers, which allows you to match the mentor you bond with the most during the quick interview process. The interview has a ‘speed dating’ type style and allows you to highlight the mentor that you have an immediate connection with. Having that strong bond with your mentor, will allow you to progress to your maximum ability. There is a lot of discussion of what YOU as a student would like to do for a career, and there should be no pressure in making decisions, the Stationers’ are all warming people to talk to, and have amazing experiences which could make you stand out from the rest. My mentor and I have a great bond talking about current affairs, both of our interests and things we like to do for fun which makes the overall experience extremely worthwhile. It’s an outstanding opportunity and could possibly make a huge impact on your future, and you will certainly learn something new”

Alfie – Year 12

Our year 12 Film Studies students had the opportunity to join a live Zoom call with Documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia. This event was organised through the British Film Institute, Kapadia gave students an insight into his career pathway and the process he goes through when making his films. He gave a detailed account of his film Amy which is one of our A Level Film set texts. 

Students were given the opportunity to pose questions to Kapadia.  We were very pleased that a question posed by one of our students was read out and answered by Kapadia. 

A number of English Literature students attend the Stationers’ Company Virtual Literary Evening with Angela Clarke.   Angela Clarke is a best-selling author of crime thrillers including On My Life (Hachette, 2019), Trust Me (HarperCollins, 2017), Watch Me (HarperCollins, 2016), and Follow Me (HarperCollins, 2015).  Anglea has also written the humorous memoir Confessions Of A Fashionista (Penguin Random House, 2013).  Angela is also a screenwriter who was one of five writers commissioned for BBC Three’s series five of The Break (BBC Studios, 2021).  She wrote and performed the comedy short The Masseuse Who Pulled My Arm Out, for BBC Ouch’s Tales Of The Misunderstood (BBC Edinburgh Festival Stage / BBC iPlayer, 2017). For stage, she contributed a sketch to the Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show (The Pleasance, Edinburgh Festival 2016) and she wrote a one-hour dramedy The Legacy which was a sell-out at The Hope Theatre, London, 2015.  Angela gave students an insight into the highs and lows of a being a writer and writing tips; including how to research when writing a book, how to write a page turner, how to write dialogue and synopsis and how to get your book published.

Year 10-13 students of Media and Film were invited to attend an online industry panel and careers talk with ILM (Industrial Light and Magic). ILM is an American motion picture visual effects company.  ILM was founded by director George Lucas and is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm,  it was created when Lucas began production of the film Star Wars.  Our students had the opportunity to hear from different creative staff from Lucasfilm about the jobs they do with visual examples of the amazing projects and films they have worked on, such as Mandalorian.  This session was met with really positive feedback, one of our year 13s said “the webinar today really inspired me and I have taken a huge interest in apprenticeships to do with media and film”.

Psychology students attended a careers talk by the CEO of a rehabilitation centre. Alice spoke about how she was able to open a rehabilitation centre for dementia patients even though she was a single parent. She attended night school in order to qualify herself for that specific job and looked after her children in the day. She also explained how she had to have a separate job in sales in order to pay for her night school but also daily expenses. Finally Alice focused her talk on apprenticeship opportunities she has for our pupils and what kind of pupils she looks for to hire. Alice focused on experience and how important it is for our pupils especially in the health sector. 

Rawlings Ujah came to Stationers Crown Wood Academy to give a talk on life as a trainee barrister.

Coming from South London, Peckham, Rawlings talked about what inspired him to get into Law and want to become a Barrister. Rawlings explained that he had a challenging upbringing as a young person growing up and settling down into mainstream secondary education and that he realised that he had to make a decision about what he wanted to do with his life. Rawlings choose Law rather than settle for a life and a career on the streets of London!

Rawlings is about to embark on his second year and final  year of the Bar Practice Course alongside with an LLM at the University of Law. Rawlings will be awarded the Professional Qualification as a Barrister which will entitle him to seek Pupillage with a set of Chambers to carryout the next stage of his training to become a Barrister. The LLM will be awarded to Rawlings as a Master’s Degree in Law. 

Rawlings gave insight into the route to becoming a Barrister and the differences between the role of a Barrister compared to the role as a Solicitor. He also gave highlights of the wide range of law topics that are offered on the LLB Law Degree Programme and the prospects of employability after graduating with a Law Degree. Rawlings spoke about the different modules studied on the Bar Practice Course as well as giving examples of what these topics consist of, for example, Criminal and Civil Litigation, Advocacy and Opinion Writing skills. He talked about the ‘qualifying Sessions’ that consists of dining with other student Barristers and Senior more prominent Judges on nights where ‘dining’ takes place. Rawlings states that this is an opportunity to network with other members of the legal profession and it also gives you the opportunity to take part in live mooting and debating sessions.

Rawlings graduated from the University of  West London with a First class Honours Degree in Law. Rawlings says that his main passion for law is to inspire other young people  and to let them know that it is possible to embark on a career as a Barrister.  Rawlings finishes off by saying that it is important to have determination, consistency, resilience and passion and a positive mindset towards studying as this determines and produces a positive outcome.

Year 12 and 13 Politics students had the opportunity to meet with Clive Efford, the local Eltham MP. This 2 hour session involved a talk from Clive about his role as an MP, following this they had an hour and a half to ask questions. Questions were submitted in advance and covered Clive’s role as an MP as well as a range of topical and contemporary political issues. Throughout this session students asked insightful questions both about Clive’s role as an MP, including which Labour leader was his favourite to work with, and a wide variety of issues including the role of the House of Lords and racism in sport. Following this Clive commented that felt that he had been really grilled and it was like being a guest on Question Time.

Economics students had a guest lecture speaker from the Bank of England who spoke on what type of work he does and his exciting work on Brexit. Our speaker gave an insightful talk on monetary policy and a robust overview of economics in practice. This was a fantastic revision lesson for Y13 who recently did their mocks with this theme being a chunky one throughout the exam!

The students feedback from excellent and would like more talk like this

One Y13 student said : ‘The economics talk was really interesting, understanding how the monetary policy committee operates really aided my overall knowledge within macroeconomics. The speaker from the MPC was really concise in explaining the role he plays within the Bank of England and what the Bank of England does. I would definitely recommend it for future students to engage with this opportunity, as it will really tie theoretical knowledge together with the real world and how it works in practice’

18 providers, offering a wide range of apprenticeship and traineeship programmes, attended our in-house Apprenticeship Fair.  Students from Year 10, 11 , 12 and 13 were invited to attend the fair and speak to the different providers. This enabled our students to gain a better understanding of the opportunities available and how to apply.   This Apprenticeship Fair is a well established annual event at SCWA which receives excellent feedback from the students who attend.  

In July 2022, 208 Year 10 students attended an in-person work experience placement.  This is the first time in three years that we have been able to run this incredibly important event.  Parents did a fantastic job of helping to secure a wide range of opportunities for their children, allowing them to experience the workplace and develop all important transferable skills which will be vital for their future pathways.  

We were also supported by Amie Giardino, our CDI enterprise link, who did a fantastic job of securing opportunities for our students, including securing four placements with ETM group, an incredibly successful hospitality business with more than 15, top end restaurants and bars in London.  The students selected to attend this placement had an incredible experience, learning all areas of the hospitality business from operations, to finance, to kitchen, to front of house.  

Other local schools and businesses were also wonderfully supportive, offering placements to our students, including: 

• Wyborne Primary School 
• De-Lucy Primary School
• Martin Arnold Surveyors 
• Timbercroft Primary School 
• Middle Park School Club
• Greenwich Uni Business School

We had incredible feedback from both employers and students, all of which were extremely positive about the experience.  Student comments included:

I was proud of many things during my placement. I was also proud of the relationships I had built with the students as at the end of my placement. I received 5 letters from the children saying how they will miss me and a chocolate bar saying “lovely teacher”! One of the kids even cried when it was time for me to go. Additionally I was able to support a group who struggled with maths in addition and subtraction and at the end of the session one of the students said “it’s so much easier now!”, which was reassuring that I’d done a good job.

I built strong relationships with the children I was working with and managed to get them to follow instructions such as tidying up and going inside. I set out activities which the children enjoyed. 

We worked as a team to create a presentation about ETM based on our own research, and then made a CV for one of our dream jobs. At the end of the experience we did a quiz to reflect on what we’d learnt over the past 3 days. 

I adapted to each task I was given and got on with it without having to ask for help all the time. The boss appreciated and praised me for my efficient and fast learning skills and that I helped the other volunteers  with the amount of work I did. 

I helped organise and tidy display tables and bookshelves which I found quite rewarding as it made it easier for customers to find what they were looking for.

I managed to complete the ‘Skills For Life’ course aimed at young people and equipping them with the necessary skills to be successful in the future. The certificate has been attached in the locker on Unifrog. When I first started, I was very nervous but everyone I met was friendly and welcoming so by the end of the three days, my confidence significantly improved, which I am very proud of. 

In June 2022 SCWA took the whole of Year 12 and over 50 Year 10 students to the Apprentice Futures event in Guildhall, London.  The event, which was hosted by The Stationers’ Company, included exhibitors from a wide range of sectors who offer an incredible range of apprenticeships at all levels.  Exhibitors included Amazon, the Armed Forces, British Airways, BT, Travis Perkins, City Lawyers, City of London Police, Evening Standard, Guildhall Art Gallery, London Ambulance Service, London Screen Academy, London Symphony Orchestra, Natwest, Planet Organic, Transport for London and a selection of Universities. 

The event provided students with lots of information about the apprenticeship route and students were able to network, creating potential connections that will be incredibly beneficial for their future!  Student feedback was very positive, including:

‘I enjoyed the different career paths and apprenticeships people recommended to me and how it made me critically think of what to do in the future’

‘There were a range of different companies which offer many different opportunities’

‘I am really excited about what the future might hold following this event’

In addition to this, four Year 9 students were given the opportunity to record the event.  These students were involved in interviewing apprenticeship providers and students in attendance and then edited the recordings to create a fantastic showcase of the event.

The Academy has developed an excellent Alumni programme where former students offer current students a wide variety of support in areas such as: portfolio development for creative art course applications, key speaker advice on entrepreneurship and guidance on the application process for Medicine and Biomedical degree programmes. 

The academy continually strives to improve its careers programme so that our students are well placed to compete in a global market beyond life at SCWA. To this end, we have subscribed to two online careers platforms to support students with the future destination planning.  All students will be using the unifrog platform.  Unifrog is the complete destinations platform – a one-stop-shop for students across KS3, KS4 and KS5 regardless of their interests or academic ability.   It is the only place where students can compare every university, apprenticeship and FE courses in the UK, as well as universities in 30 other countries across the world. Unifrog allows students to access up-to-date labour market information alongside advice and guidance on both subject choices and careers for all routes.  We also use the unifrog placement tool to manage our in-person work experience placements, which was highly successfully.

A selection of students will also be introduced to globalbridge, a pioneering EdTech platform that specialises in connecting young people and education with employers, apprenticeships and universities.  This platform allows students to record and showcase themselves by creating a student profile that includes a student biography, current education/work status, experiences and education (similar to the National Record of Achievement).  It will also provide students with connections to applicable career related opportunities, information and providers.  

In September 2022, Year 11 and Year 12 students were both involved in ‘My Future Self’ sessions delivered by Steve Sallis.   Steve Sallis is a former teacher who worked in South London schools for many years, who went on to work as coach the world’s leading athletes, including currently working with the England Under 15 National Team.  Steve founded solution mindset, a company that covers many aspects of life coaching, including delivering powerful workshops to students to help them focus on their future.  Students were involved in the following session: 

• Growth Mindset
• Marginal Gains
• The Theory of Luck
• Pygmalion Effect
• Resilience
• The Emotional Connection to life and learning
• Next Steps