Careers

St Paul’s School is committed to providing an impartial, extensive and outstanding careers education to all pupils, allowing them to make informed decisions about their future.

Support we offer

• 1-2-1 careers guidance with trained and impartial careers advisers
• Extensive university and degree apprenticeship support and information
• Extensive opportunities to meet industry representatives including professional networking events and talks
• Gap Year and Work Experience support and guidance
• Recruitment training including CV building and interview technique
• Access to the Unifrog careers and universities platform

In this section:

1. Meet the team
2. Meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks
3. Careers Programme and Policy
4. Employer Engagement
5. Useful Links

Meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks

Our careers provision is guided by the ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’ to ensure best practice and to conform to statutory requirements. Read more about the Gatsby Benchmarks here.

Careers Programme and Policy

Our careers provision is guided by the ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’ to ensure best practice and to conform to statutory requirements and is structured around the model: explore, develop, prepare, connect, and inspire.

1. Explore – for all year groups to discover and be inspired by ‘what’s out there’. Delivered through our curriculum, societies, trips, visits, Careers and Universities bulletin, one-to-one careers interviews and our annual careers fair.
2. Develop – for all year groups to nurture and refine the skills needed for the workplace. Through work experience, mock interview sessions and our enterprise and academic enrichment programmes.
3. Prepare – for our Eighth Form (Years 12 and 13) pupils to allow them to thrive in the job market. This enables pupils to participate in CV workshops, mock interview events, mock assessment centres, apprenticeship seminars, industry network evenings and opt-in for individual mentoring via St Paul’s Connect.
4. Connect – for our Eighth Form pupils, alumni, parents, former parents and friends of the school. We encourage our Eighth Form pupils to sign up to St Paul’s Connect where they can find a mentor, network and seek advice from industry leaders within the St Paul’s Community.
5. Inspire – for alumni, parents, former parents and friends of the School. All members of the St Paul’s Community can inspire the next generation by attending our careers fair, hosting work experience, being mentors or speaking at our various careers events.

As a school, we are dedicated to the progression of our pupils and ensure that the Careers education and guidance they receive meets each pupil’s specific needs at each developmental year, which can be read in the Careers Curriculum Intention Policy. Please also see our Careers Policy.

Employer Engagement

We are very keen to engage with businesses and employers to help us inform and educate pupils about potential employment opportunities. Through our Careers Programme we provide many opportunities for firms to interact with pupils such as our extended society offering, our ‘Career Conversations’ series, our Careers Fair and various employability skills workshops. We also compile a regular Careers and Universities Bulletin which advertises work experience placements, gap year ideas and apprenticeship opportunities.

If you would like to speak to our pupils about your business, or wish to advertise any work experience, please contact the Head of Careers, Dr. Daniel Brigham, via djb@stpaulsschool.org.uk.

Useful Links

National Careers Service: Great website for information, advice and guidance to help you make decisions related to further learning, training and work. Through their Skills Assessment, you can match your skills to a job. It also has a wide variety of job profiles covering a large range of industries, CV advice and help searching for courses and apprenticeships.

Prospects: Fun career quiz linking your skills, interests and personality to particular career options and job profiles. This is also a very useful website for information about where certain degrees could lead to and has CV, cover letter and work experience advice and guidance.

Jobs + Careers: Great website for interviews from people who have reached the top of their field, advice on working in certain industries and choosing a career path, CV tips as well as excellent partnerships with employers such as Macmillan Cancer Support.

BBC Bitesize: Entertaining and highly informative videos about careers given by people within those industries, including ‘How do I turn my passion into a job’ as well as a wide variety of job profiles to show what it is like to work in specific jobs.

Oxford University Careers Service: Not just for Oxford students and alumni. This website has a lot of useful information, advice and guidance surrounding various areas about careers including CV and interview help, making a career decision, and building on employable skills.

Future Goals: Fun Career quiz linking your skills, interests and personality to particular career options and job profiles. This website also has useful careers advice and guidance for 11- 15 year olds and 16-24 year olds as well as how parents and carers can engage.