A chance for Felsted pupils to beam themselves holographically from one room to another was a highlight of a visit to explore BT’s technology of the future, while others came up with plans for new green business initiatives for NatWest as part of the school’s forward-looking careers day.
Students in Year 10 were offered the choice of two activity options, designed to help them decide on their higher education and employment paths. Those interested in careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) travelled to Adastral Park in Ipswich, BT’s technology nerve-centre, and heard from the professionals there about work in research and application. They were interested to find out how 5G is enabling advances including remote operating in a medical setting and to illustrate this, their images were transmitted holographically.
Meanwhile, students keen on an entrepreneurial career were challenged to come up with a brand new environmentally friendly service or product on behalf of NatWest and map the whole process of its development from inception to design, marketing, costings and branding. Their plans were then presented to a panel of judges, led by Felsted Head Chris Townsend.
The winning initiative was for a kinesthetic energy store to be built into a Formula 1 track to allow racing cars to generate their own power. “This was one of the most unusual, ingenious ideas I’d seen” commented Mr Townsend, adding “there is real potential for this to be scaled-up worldwide”. This project was then put forward for the Grand Final event of The National Careers Challenge, held at the ICC in Birmingham in July.
“Giving pupils opportunities to get hands-on with real-world tasks really helps them to identify the careers that most interest them and will give them most satisfaction in future,” said Felsted’s Director of Professional Guidance, Louise Schofield.
All pupils at Felsted have access to professional guidance and benefit from individual advice, information and support so that they can make informed choices as they progress through the school and on to UK or international universities, degree apprenticeship programmes or straight into the workplace.