Careers Advice and Guidance

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At Knowsley Community College, we are committed to supporting our students and prospective students to plan their next steps and make informed choices about their future through impartial careers information, advice, and guidance.

We have a friendly, experienced Careers Team, who can provide lots of support across a range of areas such as:

  • Career options
  • Progression and further training options
  • Job or apprenticeship applications
  • CV writing or personal statements
  • UCAS applications

The College also works in partnership with Shaping Futures, an initiative aimed at raising higher education aspirations, which means there will be lots of opportunities for you to take advantage of should you wish to progress on to university, such as personal statement workshops, guest speaker visits and UCAS workshops.

If you are not currently a student at Knowsley Community College, but are thinking of joining us, and would like to discuss your career options and receive some guidance, get in touch by calling 0151 477 5850 or email info@knowsleycollege.ac.uk.

Meet the Careers Team

Our Careers Team are predominantly based in Student Services at the St Helens Town Centre Campus and Knowsley Main Campus (Stockbridge), however, they are more than happy to meet students at the STEM Centre Campus and IAMTech Campus too.

James Jordan
Careers Lead
jjordan@sthelens.ac.uk
0151 481 4679

To make an appointment with a Careers Adviser, please contact the relevant person below:

Margaret Bentley
Careers Adviser
Knowsley Main Campus (Stockbridge) and IAMTech Campus
mbentley@knowsleycollege.ac.uk / 0151 477 5883

Paul Whitehead
Careers Adviser
Town Centre Campus and STEM Centre Campus
pwhitehead@sthelens.ac.uk / 01744 623236

Enquiries Team
0151 477 5850 / info@knowsleycollege.ac.uk

Alternatively, you can drop into reception at any of our campuses and they will arrange an appointment for you.

The Careers Programme

Knowsley Community College’s Careers Programme is a structured programme of activities, resources and opportunities, which ensures students have access to all the information and support they need to progress towards their future aspirations.

The Careers Programme is reviewed regularly to ensure that the information we provide is up-to-date and aligned to labour market trends and careers benchmarks.

Our Careers Policy and Careers Activity Schedule can be found here. You can view our Provider Access Policy by clicking/tapping here.

An Overview

Before you join the College, you will have access to the following:

  • Free information about what courses are on offer and the benefits of studying at Knowsley Community College
  • Guidance around learning support and how we can help remove barriers to learning to ensure you maximise your true potential
  • A one to one interview with a curriculum Tutor to discuss your course application and future career aspirations
  • Access to a qualified, impartial Careers Adviser

Once you have joined the College, you will receive:

  • Ongoing access to an impartial Careers Adviser and Shaping Futures representative
  • One to one support from your Progress Coach
  • Invitations to university open days/taster days
  • Help and support with personal statements and applications to university
  • Work experience embedded within your programme of study
  • Access to industry-related guest speakers and workshops
  • Trips and visits to inspire your future career decisions

Parents and Carers

Parental involvement is encouraged at all stages of the students careers journey and in the first few weeks of term St Helens College and Knowsley Community College host parent welcome events. We recognise that parents/carers remain the biggest influence on a young person’s career choices and as such we offer parents help and guidance at critical stages in the students’ time with us. We send out monthly newsletters to Parents and Carers informing them of various career activity due to take place or that has already taken place. Within that newsletter we also send out links to useful resources and access to the Unifrog platform to help parents with Labour Market information and helping their son/daughter/ward to make those post-18 careers choices. Parents also have the opportunity to speak to the Careers Coordinator at anytime and can arrange an appointment by phone, or through the form on the parent section of the college website, or at any of their son/daughter/wards parent evenings.

Parents and Carers can access the dedicated section of our website here.

We welcome parent feedback on our careers programme and ask that you complete the following survey to help us to continue to develop our careers provision.

To start the survey, simply click/tap here.




Information for Schools and Organisations

Outreach and School Liaison

If you are a school or another organisation that would like to discuss the careers advice and guidance services that the College can provide to your pupils/students or clients, please contact the School Liaison Team:

Lisa Humphreys
School Engagement Manager
01744 623225 / lhumphreys1@sthelens.ac.uk

Bethan Love
School Liaison and Events Coordinator
01744 623343 / blove@sthelens.ac.uk

Rachel Sutton
School Liaison and Events Coordinator
01744 623225 / rsutton@sthelens.ac.uk

For more information about our range of School Liaison services, visit our dedicated page here.

Shaping Futures

Shaping Future

The Careers Team also work in partnership with Shaping Futures (MCOP), an initiative specifically aimed at delivering activities and outreach opportunities to help raise the higher education aspirations of young people in Year 10 through to Year 13, whilst providing impartial advice and information.

Previous examples of activities include utilising Shaping Futures funding to invite Year 10 and Year 11 students from local schools to the College’s annual Healthcare Sciences Skills Show, where they had the opportunity to explore a range of careers in the healthcare science industry and speak to representatives from universities across the Northwest.

If you are an external organisation or school and would like to know more about Shaping Futures and the opportunities available, please contact Bethan Love on 01744 623343 / blove@sthelens.ac.uk

Employers

At St Helens College and Knowsley Community College we recognises the value that employers can provide to students’ education and decision making about their future.

We therefore welcome offers of support and involvement from employers across all industries and employees from a wide range of business organisations. We host a careers events throughout the academic year, which includes organisations supporting the different curriculum areas and providing interactive workshops, career talks and an annual careers fair in May/June each year; employers, apprenticeship / training providers and representatives from Further and Higher Education are welcome to get involved.

We already benefit from a large number of volunteers who give up a little bit of time to come to give presentations to our students, talk about the world of work or simply discuss their job, career or pathway. We are flexible and happy to arrange a mutual time and date that suits both parties. We’d love to build a database of contacts that different curriculum areas could look at to help bring our curriculum to life. You could email our Careers Leader Lisa Humphreys, Student Engagement Manager at lhumphreys1@sthelens.ac.uk or by telephone on 01744 623225.

Useful Links and Resources