Our careers programme

The key aim of the AGFS Careers Education Programme is to equip scholars to manage the choices, changes and transitions affecting their future education, training, employment and life as adult members of an international society, and to instil the notion of life-long learning. The opportunity to empower young people, regardless of socio-economic background, to grow and be successful is at the heart of everything we do at AGFS.

A young person’s career is the progress they make in learning and work. All young people need a planned programme of activities to help them choose the pathway that is right for them. Our careers programme enables pupils to:

• Be more self-aware of their skills, aptitudes, values, aspirations and potential
• Have a better understanding of education, training and future career opportunities both within the UK and abroad
• Make informed choices about their own continuing education, training and future career paths
• Develop career management skills of self-reliance, adaptability, flexibility, decision making and problem solving

Every year we create multiple opportunities for guest speakers, trips to careers events, in-house Careers Fairs and drop-down days tailored to support our scholars in planning for their career ahead. We are committed to holding 1:1 or small group interviews for every scholar from Year 9-11 to discuss and advise on their planning towards their chosen career journey.

Throughout each academic year, scholars at AGFS have the fantastic opportunity to work alongside or engage with a variety of employers such as Goldsmiths University, Birkbeck University, Ravensbourne College, GlaxoSmithKline, Barclays Skills for Life, 8 Billion Ideas, ICT Faraday Engineer, Imperial College London and JP Morgan to name just a few, to help broaden scholars' horizons and career aspirations. These occur during drop-down days, enrichment programmes, careers fairs, assemblies, STEAM and organised trips.

At AGFS we actively encourage our scholars to be career confident in their choices and the different pathways they could follow once they complete their educational pathway. This means they:

• have completed a set of short profiling quizzes which begin a matching process between scholars and potential good-fit career paths.
• have researched their potential career paths (both those highlighted after profiling tasks as well as pathways previously identified by scholars)
• plan what they have to do to achieve their career – this may result from looking at career breakdowns, LMI information and advice from external training providers.
• know and understand the different qualifications they may need and know if they need to continue their education post 18 at university.

Scholars will also work on hard and soft skills during form time activities and all subject lessons will include time given to exploring related careers and key practical information around those specific subjects. We believe that the explicit connections made between learning and career paths allow scholars to develop a contextualised understanding of their learning and its importance beyond their academic careers.

We encourage all scholars at AGFS to think about their career from Year 7. Research suggests some individual can form decisions about their year group as early as 7 years old! In years 7 and 8, scholars lay down the foundations for their exploration of career paths (both academic and working) and the combination of profiling and up-to-date resources allow for every child to start their careers journey with a sense of purpose and a full understanding of the opportunities available to them.

Using the Unifrog platform our scholars, parents and carers can view information collated from the profiling exercises and investigate careers paths in great detail. This includes labour market information; several short videos which feature specific careers and jobs as well as broader information about working environments; career progression; key skills and related university profiles.

Unifrog is revisited throughout the scholars’ careers at AGFS and there are continuing opportunities to engage with employers in live online events and learn about careers on any device.