Employability at Kings
Employability Team
| Rachel Hopwood | Careers Lead |
| Sally Devlin | Employability (Careers) Coordinator |
| Simon Osborne | Enterprise Advisor |
| Dr Gill Odolphie | Enterprise Advisor |
If you need to contact the employability team you can call the main office on 01934 742 608 or email office@kowessex.co.uk.
Documents
Careers Guidance
Work Experience
Work experience provides a glimpse into the real world of work. It’s an opportunity to see how the knowledge gained in school can be applied in practical situations. This can be exciting and help you understand the relevance of education and to find your preferred career path.
Work experience is an opportunity to explore your interests. You may discover a passion or career path that you hadn’t considered before. It’s a low-pressure way to find out what you enjoy doing. Work experience isn’t just about work; it’s about skill-building. You can learn important life skills like time management, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. These skills will benefit them throughout your life.
Work experience dates
Year 10 07 July 2025 – 11July 2025
Year 12 30 June 2025 – 04 July 2025
Students in Year 10 and 12 please log your work experience placement on Unifrog – The universal destinations platform.
This video link has a walkthrough of how to add all the details: https://cdn.unifrog.org/video/n193u79dee/720.mp4
Resources
LMI Employment Quiz and Average Pay Checker
LMI have developed a short quiz to help students figure out what they might like to do for work. They have also developed a tool for checking UK average pay by job type.
Somerset Careers Hub Student & Parent/Carers Padlet & Opportunities Padlet
The Somerset careers hub Padlets may be of interest to students and parents. It is regularly updated with news and opportunities relating to careers in all industries in Somerset and the rest of the South West as well as careers education resources for all students at all levels.
Your Future Sorted
Directories for school students, parents, teachers and stakeholders in Dorset and Somerset.
All About Apprenticeships
A series of webinars for Parents, carers and teachers covering Apprenticeship and other Post 16 options are available on the Amazing Apprenticeships website. Anyone can register for these via Workshop & Webinars – Amazing Apprenticeships, which can be attended live or watched on demand.
The Institute for Apprenticeships is a really good website to search for and learn about apprenticeship standards. There are over 700 standards available covering all levels and sectors, there really is something for everyone! This website is a good research tool for students wanting to know whether they can reach their chosen career via the apprenticeship route. Apprenticeship search / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
Vacancy Snapshot is another great research tool. It features some of the country’s apprentice employers, providing information on the typical apprenticeship roles they recruit for, as well as hints and tips on applying. Amazing Employers – Amazing Apprenticeships
There is a useful PDF booklet, A Guide to Apprenticeship Applications produced for gov.uk, which your students may find helpful. It can be found here PDF-a-guide-to-apprenticeship-applications
Dorset and Somerset Training Provider Network have a Provider Directory (Somerset and Dorset editions) which can be found here Your Future Sorted – Directories – DSTPN. DSTPN have also produced Skills Elevators, which are a useful tool for students wanting to know the different pathways into their chosen career. These can be found here Elevator – DSTPN.
To find vacancies, Find an Apprenticeship (gov.uk) Find an apprenticeship – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Parent Zone – information and resources for parents and carers Parent Zone – Amazing Apprenticeships
Skill Up Somerset – free impartial apprenticeship and skills advisory service for individuals and businesses Home – Skill Up Somerset
Finally, there is a huge range of resources available for students, parents, carers and teachers at Amazingapprenticeships.com and Apprenticeships.gov.uk.
Useful Links
| National Careers Service | The government has set up specialist services for young people to obtain impartial Careers Advice |
| Success at School | This site has a “Careerzone” which is an excellent resource for finding out more about the different types of jobs available, with information about what to study and how to get there |
| Uptree | Free to access careers site offering a personality test, cv builder and some basic careers information |
| Youth Employment UK | The website of an organisation working to decrease unemployment amongst young people. It includes useful careers advice and research |
| Target Careers | A free to access site which is designed to increase the general knowledge of young people about a wide range of careers and relevant training |
| Career Pilot | Student friendly site of careers information |
| Career Alchemy | Parental advice site which answers many frequently asked questions |
| Milkround | A website that combines live jobs and apprenticeship vacancies with general careers information |
| All About Group | They offer free advice and guidance to young people, helping over half a million young people each year. |
| Careers Box | This site has lots of short films embedded in it where all kinds of people talk about a wide variety of areas of work |
| Practice Reasoning | This site has guides for students in dealing with psychometric tests during job interviews and internships |
| WikiJob | A site that helps you explore opportunities and plan your career as well as provide information on government funded further education |