Careers workshops inspire Year 7 and Year 8 students

On Monday 26 February our Year 7 and Year 8 cohorts took part in an inspiring day of career-related workshops. Both year groups embarked on activities throughout the day that aimed to enhance key skills required for life after education.

The Year 7 session was based around enterprise which, via a range of motivational activities, introduced them to the skills of teamwork, communication, leadership, initiative, determination and not being scared of failure. The girls were put into randomly selected groups and soon learnt that the perfect team consists of people with complementary skills. The session ended with a social enterprise challenge that involved making makarapa hats (hand-cut and hand-painted hard hats worn by South African sports fans), and showcasing them to their year group. There were prizes for best hat and best radio advert presentation.

The Year 8 session was focused on motivation and was delivered through highly interactive activities, aimed at teaching the groups about teamwork, problem-solving and communication skills. The session ended with a production and trading challenge, styled on Dragon’s Den. In their teams, the students had to make display boxes for loyalty cards using paper, pens, Sellotape, and scissors all bought from a ‘shop’. The cardholders then had to be sold back to the shop to earn a profit. The workshop exposed the importance of distributing tasks within a team, so that the product was made efficiently and there was time to negotiate the selling price based on their manufacturing time and costs.