Hear from our Students: The Careers Team

For more than 70 years, St Clare’s has been providing first class education to its students and has been able to help them achieve their goals for further education. The careers team plays a very important role in this process of exploring and helping students find their way into the adult-world. But what does it mean for our students to have access to the careers team’s support and how is it practically applied?

St Clare’s careers team currently consists of Helen Forey, the Head of the Careers team, who helps with careers exploration and universities applications and interviews, in collaboration with her colleagues Emily Spriggs, the University and Career Counsellor, who also organises careers-related events, and Virginia Irwin, the other University and Career Counsellor. Their job is described by Emily Spriggs as follows: “My role is to guide and support students as they explore their future education and career options and begin making informed decisions. This involves everything from helping students to identify their strengths, interests and goals, ensuring their IB programme is best suited to their future study plans, supporting them to ensure their university and course selections are the best fit for them, and supporting students through the application process”

Our dedicated careers team guides our students in multiple ways to guarantee each of them receives the desired amount of support. This process starts by booking an appointment with one of the team’s members. During that first appointment, the objective is usually to figure out what the desired pathway for the student is, considering whether they want to go to university, do a gap year or maybe an apprenticeship. Emily explains the challenging aspect that “every student has their own unique strengths, interests and aspirations, and ensuring they feel empowered to choose a path that aligns with their individual goals can be complex”.

Afterwards, if the choice is progress to university and further education, more details such as degree options, different countries, course contents, teaching styles, campus cultures or internship opportunities will be researched on to ensure the desired institution will satisfy the student. For those who want to go to university, another suggestion given by the careers team is to connect with current students at universities or St Clare’s alumni to hear about their university experience. After students make their informed and final university choices, the careers team will then make sure that the student fits all the requirements to enter their selected universities over the course of the IB, such as preparing them for specific tests, proposing work experiences, guiding the applications and suggesting programmes to help increase their chances of getting accepted at their dream university.

If instead, the chosen path is an apprenticeship, the careers team will put just as much effort into laying out options and preparing our students with relevant information to this choice such as salary, duration or entry requirements. If the student is considering a gap year, the different possibilities of what can be done in that year will be investigated and then prepared. Popular examples herefore are volunteering, work and travel, learning a new language abroad or do some teacher training courses to teach English as a Foreign or Second Language like our CELTA course.

To propose more individual and stronger support, our careers team’s main occupation is university counselling, where students get personal support through the process of finding the right university for them and which course/degree they are interested in is offered, as well as receiving guidance through the application process afterwards. If their support is desired, our students can easily book a counselling appointment on our “CareersExplore” website or go directly to their offices in the C-Block building.  

In addition, there are many other resources available to our student body such as the Careers Newsletter, which is sent to students on a regular basis and provides the latest news about universities and related topics; or our Student Portal in the careers section as well as, the “CareersExplore” website, where our students can explore the different pathways for their future. These resources and where to find the desired information students are looking for, are taught in specific Careers-CorePlus lessons, where our careers team shows them how to efficiently use these tools, and how to self-explore and reflect on their interests and goals. These lessons create a space for students to explore placements, work experiences and receive consultation for their CV and university applications either by first-hand through the careers team or by self-research through the provided resources.

With the careers team’s support “students are empowered to take ownership of their future while we help them navigate this often complex and competitive process of higher education and career planning”. Our students at St Clare’s are lucky to have such tailored support and they report to feel informed and satisfied about their choices for the future without unanswered questions, knowing they had the best support in reaching their highest full potential.

Written by Zoey – IB26 student