Careers/Work Experience

Our Col­leges are accred­it­ed by Matrix Stan­dard Award for infor­ma­tion, advice and guid­ance so you can be sure that the advice you receive in col­lege is of a high stan­dard and we are com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing to work to these stan­dards and the 8 Gats­by Bench­marks.

We pro­vide Careers Edu­ca­tion Infor­ma­tion Advice and Guid­ance (CEIAG) ser­vice to ALL.

Peter­bor­ough Col­lege has its very own employ­ment ser­vice, Job­s­mart, where you can ben­e­fit from week­ly vacan­cy list­ings, CV advice, access to a wide range of train­ing cours­es and a ded­i­cat­ed vacan­cy match­ing service.

Our spe­cial­ist Careers Advis­er pro­vides impar­tial infor­ma­tion, advice and guid­ance enabling stu­dents to plan and pre­pare for their future. CV writ­ing, job and appren­tice­ship search, prepar­ing for inter­views and UCAS appli­ca­tion sup­port is offered through­out the year.

• UCAS Under­grad­u­ate: Advice for Par­ents and Guardians (exter­nal link)
• Career Mag for par­ents (exter­nal link)

Need help plan­ning out your career path? Whether you need help decid­ing on the best route through edu­ca­tion or plan­ning a career change the Nation­al Careers Ser­vice can help plan your next steps. Want more infor­ma­tion, click here

• A skills assess­ment from the Nation­al Careers Ser­vice to help you explore careers that might inter­est you – click here
• Infor­ma­tion and resources for par­ents to assist stu­dents to make informed choic­es about apprenticeships

An appren­tice­ship is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to work and study at the same time, allow­ing you to earn a wage while you learn. Learn more here.

Updat­ed: August 2023

High qual­i­ty careers edu­ca­tion and guid­ance in col­lege is crit­i­cal to young people’s futures. It helps to pre­pare them for the work­place by pro­vid­ing a clear under­stand­ing of the world of work includ­ing the routes to jobs and careers that they might find engag­ing and reward­ing. It sup­ports them to acquire the self-devel­op­ment and career man­age­ment skills they need to achieve pos­i­tive employ­ment des­ti­na­tions. This helps stu­dents to choose their path­ways, improve their life oppor­tu­ni­ties and con­tribute to a pro­duc­tive and suc­cess­ful economy.

It is increas­ing­ly impor­tant that young peo­ple have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn about all options avail­able to them post-16 and post-18 includ­ing wider tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion options such as T‑Levels and High­er Tech­ni­cal Qualifications.

IEG is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing there is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for a range of edu­ca­tion and train­ing providers to access stu­dents, for the pur­pose of inform­ing them about approved edu­ca­tion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions. IEG is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing stu­dents on the path that will secure their best future out­come, act­ing impar­tial­ly, in line with the statu­to­ry duty, and not show­ing bias towards any route, be that aca­d­e­m­ic or technical. 

IEG endeav­ours to ensure that all stu­dents have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to access infor­ma­tion on high­er qual­i­fi­ca­tions, tech­ni­cal options and appren­tice­ships (The Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, July 2021: ​“Bak­er Clause”: sup­port­ing stu­dents to under­stand the full range of edu­ca­tion and train­ing options, and the Provider Access Leg­is­la­tion, Jan­u­ary 2023).

Aims:

The IEG pol­i­cy for Access to oth­er edu­ca­tion and train­ing providers has the fol­low­ing aims: 

• To pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties that allow our stu­dents to devel­op their knowl­edge and aware­ness of all career path­ways avail­able to them, includ­ing high­er qual­i­fi­ca­tions, tech­ni­cal qual­i­fi­ca­tions and apprenticeships. 
• To sup­port young peo­ple to be able to learn more about oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tion and train­ing out­side of school before mak­ing cru­cial choic­es about their future options. 

There are lots of ben­e­fits to work expe­ri­ence, you’ll be work­ing along­side peo­ple who have been in the job for years who can pass knowl­edge on to you. Work expe­ri­ence builds self-esteem, and you’ll get to put into prac­tice all of the new skills you’ve been learn­ing at College.

• You will expe­ri­ence a behind the scenes look into your career choices

• You will devel­op the rel­e­vant occu­pa­tion­al skills, atti­tude and behav­iours expect­ed at work

• You will be able to make a mean­ing­ful deci­sion about your future and progression

• You get the chance to devel­op your employ­a­bil­i­ty skills, which could give you the edge when it comes to apply­ing for jobs

• If you impress your employ­er you may get the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a part-time job, or full time job or appren­tice­ship once you have com­plet­ed your course

• Work expe­ri­ence improves per­son­al development

• If your pro­gres­sion route is onto Uni­ver­si­ty then you will have rel­e­vant and recent work expe­ri­ence to talk about in your per­son­al state­ment / interviews