Ricoh Arena Conference for Career Academy

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher and Career Academy Manager

Our second year Business Career Academy students have been sharing best practice this week with other Career Academies students at the Career Academies Conference at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

At the moment, the College currently operates a Business Career Academy, but other Career Academies in new subject areas will launch in September. The Career Academy is a national programme that develops the employability skills of young people. The College is working with Career Academies UK to secure workplace networks and experiences for students by linking up with local employers. Visits, guru lectures, business mentoring and paid internships form part of the Career Academy experience for students.

At the Conference, the students kicked off the day by taking part in a BP sponsored Trading Enterprise Game. It was a work-related game, which offered students the opportunity to put enterprise, maths and business skills into action through an exciting simulation of real-life trading. Each group of students had a representative from Yorkshire Bank on their table to help advise them through each round. The students had to buy and sell oil and make decisions on the current market conditions as they arose in each round, by receiving a news bulletin at the start of each round. One of the Sixth Form College’s students, Ryan Fryer was on the winning team called ‘Grease’.

The Conference also saw students given hints and tips on money management, which was especially useful for those students who are considering moving away to university in September.

After lunch, the students played a ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ game, again focusing on general money management. The rest of the afternoon was spent in different workshops, in which the focus was on the different routes to success and the skills deemed essential to get that success. Our students attended workshops entitled ‘University Life’, ‘A career in Accountancy’ and ‘Apprenticeship routes in Price Waterhouse Coopers’.

It was a great day and everyone had fun. This group of students have had a lot of great business experiences through their involvement in our Business Career Academy over the last year and a half, not least their 6-week summer internships. However, it was really useful for them to meet with other students from other Career Academies to see what they have been doing. It was a way of sharing best practice and the involvement of representatives from Yorkshire Bank was really beneficial too.