Careers

Careers Overview

HoD: Miss A Chestnutt

The importance of effective careers education within schools has never been greater. The increased choice of education and training pathways available to young people, the modularisation of the curriculum and the need to develop key employability skills, place careers education at the heart of the curriculum. This centrality is recognised in RSD with a strong focus on supporting individual pupils as they progress through school and plan for their futures.

Curriculum

Key Stage 3 pupils are introduced to Careers in the “Education for Employability” module taught during their weekly “Learning for Life and Work” classes.

Pupils begin to identify their qualities and skills, research a variety of careers and begin to carry out some basic career planning. In Year 10 pupils use the Job Explorer Database software to identify careers that interest them and time is spent in preparation for choosing their GCSE subjects.

In Year 12 pupils have a Careers period each week.  In these classes pupils are encouraged through target setting and decision making exercises to research carefully the careers in which they are interested, so that they make the right decisions which choosing their options after GCSE.

Pupils develop their own CV and personal statement and learn how to apply for jobs. RSD has established a good relationship with the Careers Service NI and each Year 12 pupil has at least one individual guidance interview with the DfE Careers Adviser.

All pupils in Years 13 & 14 have a period of Careers every week and in addition they can opt to spend a study period in the Careers Library.  With vast majority of pupils wishing to progress to university much time is spent in Year 13 researching courses and institutions and carrying out preparation for the application process.

Pupils are also introduced to higher apprenticeships and the possibility of employment post A level.  We hold an “Interview Skills Day” each year which culminates with all Year 14 pupils having a mock job interview with a local businessman/woman and we also cover application forms, covering letter and pupils update their CVs.

At the beginning of Year 14 each pupil is allocated to a member of the Careers Staff who will give one-to-one advice regarding the pupil’s application to university and assistance with completion of application forms and the UCAS process. We encourage all pupils to engage in work shadowing and in recent years we have had pupils on placements in a wide range of professions and locations, as well as many pupils attending Open Days in allied health professions.

All pupils invited for interview at university or college are offered a mock interview and we also run a preparation session for Medicine and Dentistry MMI interviews. Accommodation and finance are topics that are also covered in Sixth Form Careers classes and in previous years we have had presentations from Danske Bank on student finance and budgeting, as well as having Student Finance staff manning a drop-in clinic to assist pupils with the completion of their student finance forms.

Careers Staff are available to give advice in August when A level results are published.

In addition to the one-to-one guidance offered to each pupil on a weekly basis, the Careers staff organise a wide range of additional support to help pupils find the right path for them. These include:

  • Higher Education Evening for Year 13 parents and pupils, held annually in March

Trips to:

  • Skills NI Careers Fair
  • UCAS Convention
  • Cambridge and Oxford Student Conference
  • Oxford Residential & Open Day
  • ALMAC
  • Ulster University Open Day (Sept Y14)
  • Queen’s University Open Day (Sept Y14)

We have also host talks from the universities such as:

  • Queen’s University Belfast
  • Ulster University
  • CAFRE (Greenmount, Loughry, Enniskillen)
  • Cambridge University
  • “Scottish University Tour” representing seven universities

We have also had a number of visitors speaking to pupils about their jobs in areas such as:

  • Accountancy
  • Dietetics
  • Economics
  • Engineering
  • Nutrition and Physical Education
Year 10

Job Explorer Database: JED  use the link below and then type the password that your LLW teacher has given you.
www.careersoft.co.uk/sign-in

General Careers Information
NI Careers Service – http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/careers
Sector Skills Councils – http://fisss.org/sector-skills-council-body/directory-of-sscs/

Prospects (graduate careers website) – http://www.prospects.ac.uk/

Local Universities and Colleges
Queen’s University Belfast – http://www.qub.ac.uk/
Ulster University – http://www.ulster.ac.uk/
CAFRE (Loughry, Greenmount & Enniskillen) – http://www.cafre.ac.uk/
Trinity College Dublin – www.tcd.ie
University College Dublin – www.ucd.ie
Dublin City University – www.dcu.ie

Local FE Colleges
South West College (SWC) – http://www.swc.ac.uk/ (Dungannon, Cookstown, Enniskillen & Omagh)
Southern Regional College (SRC) – http://www.src.ac.uk/ (Armagh, Portadown, Banbridge, Lurgan, Kilkeel & Newry)
Loughry, Greenmount & Enniskillen (CAFRE) – http://www.cafre.ac.uk/

UCAS – www.ucas.com
CAO (applications for Irish Universities) – www.cao.ie

University Admissions Tests
BMAT – http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/bmat
UKCAT – http://www.ukcat.ac.uk/
LNAT – http://www.lnat.ac.uk/
HPAT Ulster (for Allied Health Professions at Ulster Univ) – http://hpat-ulster.acer.edu.au/
HPAT Ireland (for Medicine in Republic of Ireland) – http://www.hpat-ireland.acer.edu.au/
ELAT – http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/elat
STEP – http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/step
Thinking Skills Assessment
TSA Cambridge – http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsacambridge
TSA Oxford – http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsaoxford
TSA UCL – http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/tsaucl

Student Finance
Student Finance NI – http://www.studentfinanceni.co.uk

Apprenticeships

General information – https://www.ucas.com/higher-apprenticeships
PwC Head Start Higher Apprenticeship – https://www.pwc.co.uk/careers/school-jobs/jobs.html
Deloitte Bright Start Higher Apprenticeship – https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/careers/articles/brightstart-business-apprenticeship-scheme.html
BBC Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship – http://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/trainee-schemes-and-apprenticeships/technology/software-engineering-degree-apprenticeship
Dale Farm Apprenticeships – http://dalefarm.co.uk/dale-farm-promotes-new-apprenticeship-opportunities-skills-ni/
Greiner Gold Apprenticeship – http://www.goldenapprenticeship.co.uk/
Moy Park Apprenticeships – https://www.moypark.com/en/careers/apprenticeships

Careers News Articles

CAFRE : Future in Food

On Friday 17th November, 25 pupils in Years 12-14 participated in “CAFREs Futures in Food” Careers programme, RSD was paired with local food company Linden ABP. We started our morning in the food processing factory, hearing about opportunities in Linden Foods and heard about studying at CAFRE and Higher Level Apprenticeships from past pupil, Lewis Connelly. We toured the factory and were treated to yummy burgers for lunch. We then went to CAFRE Loughry College to continue our adventure. Pupils were issued a New Product Development task to design a Summer BBQ Burger, adding flavours not normally put together, pupils got stuck in, came up with some interesting flavour combinations and had a fabulous day creating while having lots of laughs. Thank you to @DiscoverCAFRE and @LindenABP for this wonderful opportunity and for opening up our minds to the vast career paths available through Food Industry. We had a great day!

UCAS Discovery UK Tour

RSD LVI pupils had a great afternoon today at the UCAS DISCOVERY UK TOUR at the Eikon Exhibition Centre.

Launch of the McCann Reach Bursary Scheme

At the end of last term, we were delighted to welcome Mr Richard McCann to speak to Years 12-14 about the McCann Reach Bursary scheme, which is a new and exciting opportunity for Sixth Formers.

Sixth Form visit Stranmillis University College

A group of our Sixth Form pupils recently attended an open day at Stranmillis University College.

A Level Physics pupils meet particle Physicist

Year 13 and 14 pupils Physics pupils meet particle physicist, Chris McNicol.

Top candidate in A Level CCEA examination

Congratulations to Rachel Johnston who has been awarded 2nd place in Northern Ireland, in the 2018 A Level examination in Nutrition and Food Science.

Sixth Form pupils visit QUB and UU Open Days

Year 14 pupils attended Queens University Belfast’s Open Day yesterday (Thursday) and Ulster University’s Open Day at Jordanstown on Tuesday.

Celebrating success in A Level results

Congratulations to the Royal School Dungannon’s Sixth Form pupils who achieved excellent A Level results this summer.

Past pupil Adam Willis takes top award at Stranmillis

RSD past pupil and Head Boy in 2013-2014, Adam Willis picked up a top award for outstanding academic achievement from Stranmillis University College.

University Road Show: Open Day

On Friday the 29th of September, Lower Sixth students took part in a University Road Show open day, held at RSD.

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