Author: Samantha Latchayya

Here at BJC, we have had a busy month welcoming a number of external agencies who have been running workshops with our pupils.

Works Better is a positive minds programme delivered by Kirklees Council in collaboration with C&K Careers, Support 2 Recovery and Northorpe Hall. The primary aim of the sessions is to work alongside young people aged 15-25, exploring training and careers opportunities, learning new skills that will further their development, and learning how to sell themselves to prospective employers.

Works Better helps young people to build confidence, and create professional CVs, whilst gaining an understanding of what skills employers are looking for, supporting them to access local apprenticeship opportunities. Works Better delivered a session to our current year 11 cohort. Pupils engaged exceptionally well during the session and every single student chose to sign up to the service.

Thank you to the Works Better team for coming along and sharing this opportunity with our pupils.

As part of the BTEC in Personal Growth and Wellbeing qualification for PSHE, pupils have covered many topics such as alcohol and drugs. One topic that pupils needed to discuss as part of this qualification was organ donation and blood transfusions. To make sure pupils received the best information about this, Karen Piotr – a volunteer working with the NHS and Organ Donation, spoke to the pupils about organ donation and her experience of this. The pupils learnt about the recent change in legislation about how they now have to opt out of being an organ donor, how to do this, the procedure for donating blood.

Karen also spoke to the pupils about the importance of talking to family and friends about their wishes and desires after death. Karen shared her own personal story of sadly losing her husband and how he had expressed the desire to be an organ donor. The pupils really enjoyed the session, and it has been a topic of conversation throughout college since.

Thank you to Karen for providing such relevant and thought-provoking information to our pupils.

BJC also had the privilege of welcoming Clare Johnson, the early careers lead at Sodexo. Clare came and delivered a session to our year 11 learners, where she shared information about the company, the types of industry sectors they support, and what current apprenticeship schemes and employment opportunities are currently on offer. Clare started the session playing 2 truths and lie, breaking the ice and providing the perfect introduction to the session.

Clare discussed the youth employment market, providing examples of what it is employers are looking for in the younger generation. Clare also focussed on CV writing, looking at what does and doesn’t sell, even providing the pupils with some fantastic interview tips. Both pupils and staff agreed that it was an extremely beneficial session! One pupil stayed with Clare at the end to discuss his future prospects. After their discussion, Clare is now going away to explore getting them into one of their catering providers at Sodexo for some work experience and has expressed that there could be a potential apprenticeship at the end for him.

A huge thank you to Clare for volunteering your time with our pupils.

– Nicola Atkinson – Deputy Head