Careers in the spotlight at Copleston High School

Careers were in the spotlight at a Young Chamber business event held at Copleston High School in Ipswich.

The Young Chamber presented a range of expert speakers from a variety of professions to help the students find out about the world of commerce and business, before they made career or further education choices.

Ashleigh Seymour-Rutherford of the Young Chamber said: “This was a practical and interactive way to bridge the gap between school and work that was both exciting and honest”.

She was speaking at the end of the speaker event at Copleston High School which saw hundreds of pupils seize the chance to learn about the real world of work – in sectors they themselves had said they most wanted to hear about.

Young Chamber is an initiative run by the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and has been working with Copleston High School since 2015 as a way for the school to tap into the knowledge, skills and experiences that local businesses can provide students for them to succeed when they leave full-time education and start work.

Shaun Common, head teacher, said “this partnership between the School, Young Chamber and the wider business community is already delivering real benefits for us.

“Young Chamber organised a great ‘Your Futures’ careers fair in March, at which the students told us they specifically wanted more information on opportunities in the sports, construction, gaming, NHS and Police sectors.

“Within a month of this, Young Chamber had used its extensive contacts in the business community to bring together leading local industry experts to reveal more about the opportunities available in their organisations and beyond”.

The event put a spotlight on careers in each of the sectors in questions with presentations from Terry Baxter of Inspire Suffolk on sports, Peter Brady of Orbital Media about the gaming industry, Nick Hulme the chief executive of the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, with Sam Mason about the police service and James Wilson, managing director of RG Carter about careers in the construction industry.

“Information is power and this is what this event and indeed Young Chamber as a whole is all about: empowering Suffolk’s students to make the right decisions for them as to their future careers and to ensure the wider prosperity of the whole of Suffolk,” added Ashleigh Seymour-Rutherford.

For more information about Young Chambercontact: ashleigh@suffolkchamber.co.uk