Students Get Prepped for Work

East Sussex College is holding a series of talks and workshops with industry professionals this National Careers Week (4^th- 8^th March), to help prepare students for the workplace.

East Sussex College will welcome employers and special guests to its campuses in Eastbourne, Lewes and Hastings throughout the week, which also marks National Apprenticeship Week.

Organised by The Hub, the careers, education, and work experience team based at the College, students from all courses will find something beneficial to them. There will be weeklong events in Hastings and Eastbourne and a marketplace set up in Lewes.

The Lewes Careers Week Market Place event takes place on Wednesday 6^th March from 10.30am-2.30pm. The Cliffe Mall will be transformed into an exciting and informative hub, where students can meet 20 stall holders, including universities, gap year agencies, local and national employers, and apprenticeships.

Confirmed attendees for the Lewes Market Place event include NHS Careers, Police Recruitment, Apprenticeships.gov, My Future Starts Here, East Sussex County Council, Wave Leisure, Brighton University and more.

In Eastbourne, there will be 62 classroom sessions for students throughout the week. The College has collaborated with East Sussex County Council Careers Hub who work with ‘industry champions’. These are employers including the NHS, Neilson Active Holidays and recruitment agencies.

Dundee University will be attending the Eastbourne and Lewes campus to talk to first year students about applying for medicine and dentistry industry jobs.

Various workshops will be run throughout the week in Eastbourne, one of which will give people the do’s and don’ts of job applications.

Apprenticeships in Sussex will hold workshops, promoting apprenticeships as a progression option. Apprenticeship organisation, ASK, will talk to Level 3 Business students about Skype interview and group interview techniques.

Recruitment South East (RSE) will talk about utilising social media channels such as Linked In to get the job you want. Sussex Recruitment are holding a ‘Route into Employment’ session. This will focus on factors to consider when choosing a career, employability behaviours and transferable skills learners require, and advice on preparing job applications.

Neilson Active Holidays will be offering interactive workshops with Childcare students, Beauty salon students and Sports students. Representatives from Neilson will talk about the work opportunities available with the company, which is identified as the UK’s leading independent active holiday provider.

Glen Archer, Resourcing Manager at Neilson Active Holidays, says:

We want to attract and retain the best team in the business. Therefore, we’re always looking for hardworking, friendly, enthusiastic individuals to join us! We look for individuals who can build rapport with ease and always give our guests confidence in the fact that every element of their holiday is being delivered by people that care!

Working for Neilson is all about sharing your passion for the activities you learn and love. You'll be working hard, but the work is fun and there's always plenty of time to play!

Neilson has around 1,200 summer season positions and 300 winter season positions (Dec-end April) and has 150 staff all year round. This is a chance for students to see the exciting opportunities available to them, and also the varieties of roles within one company.

The NHS will also be providing a number of interactive sessions for students at the College this National Careers Week. Jayne Thwaites, Health and Social Care Pre-employment Coordinator for Sussex at Health Education England, comments:

This is something we are very excited to support. It will be an opportunity to dispel any myths about working in the NHS; it really isn’t just about doctors and nurses. We would like to make the students aware of the wide range of career opportunities available to them in the NHS. There are over 350 different careers available ranging from the clinical roles that most people associate with the NHS, to roles that they may not be so familiar with such as chefs, accountants, electricians and medical photographers.

The Eastbourne campus will also welcome ESC alumni Millie Allen, (Student of the Year 2017). Millie, who studied A Level IT, Accounting, and Business at the College, is now an Audit Associate at Ernst Young (EY), one of the largest accounting firms in the world. She specialises in the Government and Public Sector and is studying toward her five-year ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) qualification.

Millie comments:

I am looking forward to coming back to ESC and demonstrating what, as a college, they have enabled me to achieve. I’d like to share my experiences of the apprenticeship recruitment process and highlight the key skills I have learnt in order to encourage, and hopefully spark the students’ interest in their future career. It’s an exciting opportunity to be able to speak to students about their different options after college as I was in their shoes just a few years ago.

Students from across the Station Plaza and Ore Valley campuses in Hastings will attend a variety of workshops. These include My Future Starts Here, who will deliver sessions on applications, interview techniques, and personal branding, to help prepare students in their transition to employment.

Future First, supported by college alumni, will be hosting ‘World of Work’, sessions where the focus will be on employability skills. Students will identify their own skills and how to develop a personal brand. They will also be introduced to the notion of networking and how to stand out to future employers.

In Hastings there will be apprenticeship talks throughout the week, raising awareness of the opportunities available.

As part of NCW/NAW, East Sussex College will be attending the National Careers Event at the Amex Stadium, home of Brighton & Home Albion Football Club, on Tuesday 5^th March. The event will be attended by secondary school students from the Brighton area in the day time (9.30am-4pm) and open to college students and the general public afterwards (4pm-6pm). This is a fantastic opportunity for students to find out about the courses East Sussex College has to offer in A Levels, BTECS, apprenticeships and higher education.