Stamford College Welcomes School Careers Advisors For Post-16 Options Event

Stam­ford Col­lege wel­comed Careers Advi­sors and teach­ing staff from local sec­ondary schools for a ​‘Spot the Dif­fer­ence’ Break­fast Event, where guests heard from experts on all things A Lev­els, Diplo­mas, Appren­tice­ships and T‑Levels. Whilst served deli­cious pas­tries, fresh fruit, juices and hot drinks, guests watched pre­sen­ta­tions that exam­ined the dif­fer­ences between the post-16 qual­i­fi­ca­tions that Inspire Edu­ca­tion Group (IEG) offers across its Stam­ford Col­lege and Peter­bor­ough Col­lege campuses. 

After a warm wel­come from Vice Prin­ci­pal of Stu­dent and Staff Expe­ri­ence, Sarah Young, who touched upon IEG’s facil­i­ties, stu­dent sup­port and the appli­ca­tion process, Mar­i­lyn Kennedy, Assis­tant Prin­ci­pal of Aca­d­e­m­ic Cur­ricu­lum, began her ​‘A Lev­el Analy­sis’. A Lev­el stu­dents at Stam­ford Col­lege achieve some of the best grades nation­al­ly, with the 2022 pass rate record­ed at 99.4 per cent. Mar­i­lyn praised the stu­dents for their hard work in achiev­ing these grades, but also spoke of the advan­tages of study­ing in a col­lege envi­ron­ment. A key bal­ance is struck at Stam­ford Col­lege, where stu­dents feel an increased lev­el of inde­pen­dence, but are offered a high lev­el of sup­port when it is need­ed. They also devel­op skills for uni­ver­si­ty and the world of work along­side their cur­ricu­lum stud­ies, par­tic­i­pat­ing in work expe­ri­ence and a Com­mu­ni­ty and Social Action Project, and hear­ing from guest speak­ers, both inter­nal­ly and on field visits.

Next, Group Man­ag­er of Mar­ket­ing & Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Kate Knight, com­menced with the ​‘Diplo­ma Digest’ seg­ment. Diplo­mas are prac­ti­cal qual­i­fi­ca­tions which relate to a par­tic­u­lar pro­fes­sion or tech­ni­cal skill, designed to make stu­dents read­i­ly employ­able. Diplo­mas are accept­ed by 95% of uni­ver­si­ties, and a handy UCAS points graph­ic helped to visu­alise the true val­ue of diplo­mas, espe­cial­ly in com­par­i­son to its tra­di­tion­al aca­d­e­m­ic coun­ter­part, A Lev­els. Gen­er­al­ly, diplo­mas take a more hands-on, prac­ti­cal approach to learn­ing, assessed via course­work as opposed to seat­ed exam­i­na­tions. They are per­fect for those who feel as though they have out­grown school, or do not wish to pur­sue aca­d­e­m­ic spe­cialisms such as med­i­cine and dentistry.

Third­ly, Appren­tice­ship Devel­op­ment Man­ag­er, Paul Ward, spoke of the ben­e­fits of a voca­tion­al route, through appren­tice­ships. Appren­tice­ships allow stu­dents to kick-start their career by gain­ing real-life work expe­ri­ence, prac­ti­cal skills, and qual­i­fi­ca­tions. They’re the per­fect way to earn a wage whilst study­ing, and over 90 per cent of appren­tices progress into full-time work or fur­ther train­ing. Paul explained how stu­dents can find an appren­tice­ship vacan­cy by vis­it­ing the gov​.uk web­site, with full sup­port from the appren­tice­ships teams at Inspire Edu­ca­tion Group.