WORK RELATED LEARNING & ENTERPRISE ACTIVITIES

“..the school’s admirable emphasis on preparation for working life means that (students) are outstandingly well prepared for their future economic well–being.”

(Ofsted Report 2008 - full report available here)

Preparing our students for life after school is a central part of what we aim to do as a school. Most of our students will at some stage of their future life be a part of the world of work and an important strand to their learning here is therefore work related. Links with industry and other employers are very important at Beaumont and there is a well-established, but constantly evolving programme working closely with the local business community.

Throughout the school students have opportunities to take part in work-related learning and enterprise activities carefully tailored to the stages they have reached in their education and personal development. In Year 7, students undertake a day of work shadowing, usually with a parent or family member/friend. In Year 8 one of the Curriculum Enrichment Days is devoted to Enterprise, with students working in groups to create and run a company aiming to maximise their profits in a fast moving international environment. In Year 9 students have a Business/Economics Curriculum Enrichment Day, and also an Enterprise Day where they are challenged to produce and present a business plan and marketing material for a recycling company to a panel of experts.

By Year 10 the students’ increasing maturity and thoughts about future careers are marked by their undertaking a week’s work experience. Feedback from work experience from both students and employers is overwhelmingly positive each year, and is testament to the maturity and skills of the majority of our students. Click here for information on the Work Experience Programme for 2010. Year 10 students also undertake a ‘mini-consultancies’ project, working in their Life Skills sessions over a period of several months as ‘consultants’ to one of a number of local businesses. Each company provides a project brief on a business related problem, on which the groups of students produce a report and final presentation setting out their suggested solutions.

In Year 11 students spend a day in workshops being coached on how to present themselves in the best light when applying for work, college or university and looking at various aspects of ‘moving on’ in their educational or post-education lives.

Once in the Sixth form, students can take part in the Young Enterprise programme.  Young Enterprise is a national education charity founded in 1963 to forge links between schools and industry to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise. Each year interested students from Beaumont create their own company with a view to producing and marketing the most creative and innovative product in competition with other Young Enterprise companies. Beaumont teams have a strong history of success in Young Enterprise, having achieved success at both District and County levels in recent years.