Careers and Futures Guidance
Cheryl Hancock is a CDI Registered Level 6 Careers Development Professional, who started her career working in Business as a Recruitment Consultant within the IT industry. This love of recruitment was supported by her passion for young people, moving on in her Career she began recruiting and managing apprentices and apprenticeship programmes in Business, again focussing on IT industry pathways. Cheryl has a wealth of knowledge on Apprenticeships and has followed this path herself, becoming a Level 6 qualified Careers Adviser. Her journey has now brought her to Lord Grey Academy, where she is loving every day supporting our young people in their career journeys.
Isabelle Wallace is our Careers Assistant who is an ex-student of Lord Grey. After finishing her A-levels, Isabelle went on to complete a degree in BA Sociology at the University of Northampton. Isabelle has lots of experience working with children and young people and can’t wait to start assisting the careers team with their fabulous work!
Renuka Patel, is our Careers Advisor, and started her working life as a Community Tutor in Leicester and Nottingham. Since moving to Milton Keynes she has worked with Young people with a diversity of backgrounds. Renuka has worked with Buckingham Careers Services, Connexions, Career Management and Adviza in Buckinghamshire. Renuka achieved her Post Graduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (L6) at University of East London.
The Careers department arranges for speakers, visits, and careers days, as well as one-to-one career appointments to talk to students about their plans, and help you to find out what qualifications and skills are needed, so that Lord Grey Students can plan their next steps.
A great place to start your career planning is the Lord Grey Careers Website. There you can find out about college, apprenticeships, sixth forms, and universities, as well as explore links to further information and online work experience.
Calling all Employers and Training Providers
Here at Lord Grey Academy, we are keen to give our students every opportunity to access the world of work, and with this in mind, we welcome ex-students, employers, industry representatives and training providers to make contact with us to support our students in their journey to employability.
Here is a list of possible activities you could get involved with at our school:
- Workplace visits
- Careers talks
- Work experience placements
- Mentoring
- Enterprise competitions
- CV writing advice
- Interview preparation
If you are able to support any of these activities to help our students to develop employability skills, please contact one of the people below:
Cheryl Hancock, Careers Officer cheryl.hancock@stantonbury-tove.org.uk 01908 626180
Renuka Patel, Careers Advisor renuka.patel@lordgrey.org.uk 01908 626180
Isabelle Wallace, Careers Assistant isabelle.wallace@lordgrey.org.uk 01908 626180
Jen Masey Progress and Achievement Leader jen.masey@lordgrey.org.uk 01908 626151
Careers Events
We hold off-timetable Careers Days for students in Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10. These give students the opportunity to meet people from universities, apprenticeship providers and the world of work. They explore their own strengths and areas for development and learn what skills are needed to forge a successful and fulfilling career. Your child will receive information about the date of their Careers Day in advance.
In addition to the whole-day events, we run regular career workouts, topic-specific assemblies, and invite guests in to individual lessons. If you or your employer are able to support our careers service in any way, please get in touch.
Raising Aspirations
Along with the rest of the Academy, our Careers Service operates on the foundation that Lord Grey Can. We believe that our students are capable of anything they set their sights upon, and we strive to give them as many opportunities as possible to find out what they enjoy and will excel at.
We work with a number of local universities and higher education establishments, apprenticeship providers, local, national and international employers to encourage our students to have high aspirations for their futures. We take groups of students to visit universities where they take part in various workshops, and are fortunate to have the support of higher education providers for activities in school. We also work with a wide range of employers to offer talks, mentoring and tailored subject specific support to inspire our learners, give a greater understanding about the world of work and to develop employability skills.
We offer extremely good UCAS, university, apprenticeship and H.E. finance advice to our Sixth Form learners.
What Can Parents, Guardians, Carers Do?
Support and encouragement at home makes a big difference to students’ self belief, and high expectations bring about better results. Before their Careers Day or any event, please talk to your son or daughter about what they hope to learn from it. Afterwards, talk through what they did and how they would like to take their learning further. Encourage them to plan big for their future – as the saying goes, ‘if they aim for the moon, and miss, they’ll still land among the stars.’ Lord Grey Can.
