St Mary’s Catholic College celebrate National Careers Week with jam-packed schedule of activities 

St Mary’s Catholic College in Wallasey recently participated in National Careers Week from 4 March to 8 March, which saw it arrange a wealth of careers-focused activities and challenges for students. 

As part of a major careers-related learning initiative, St Mary’s combined National Careers Week with Enterprise Week. 

All students were able to engage in ‘inspire time’, where they worked on their career passports to self-assess their current skills and identify their strengths. 

Teachers at St Mary’s used timetabled lessons to showcase the curriculum to careers link, highlighting the relevancy of each subject to the world of work and supporting students to identify how the skills and knowledge gained in specific subject areas can translate into real jobs. 

Enterprise Week involved year groups that were taken off timetabled lessons for a whole day each to participate in The National Careers Challenge, hosted each day by four facilitators from The International Learning Group, based in the Midlands. 

On Tuesday, 5 March, Year 7 students took part in a challenge to develop the use of hydrogen to reduce carbon emissions in the future. On Wednesday, 6 March, students from Year 10 had the opportunity to build the school of the future, where they focussed on future sustainability.  

Across the three days, each year group worked studiously in small teams before presenting their ideas to a judging panel similar to the hit TV show Dragon’s Den. The judges then selected the winning team based on the ideas they had presented.  

Each team was offered the opportunity to compete in the National Careers Challenge finals at Doncaster Racecourse later this year.  

Just last year, a team of Year 8 students from St Mary’s were victorious and crowned the National Careers Challenge winners at the event in the final in Birmingham. 

Headteacher at St Mary’s Catholic College, Mr Kevin Maddocks, said: “National Careers Week is always an important date in our calendar.  

“Careers education forms an integral part of our curriculum, and ensuring our students understand what pathways are available to them and how they can use their skills in the workplace is vital.  

Mr Maddocks added: “We are extremely proud of the students who participated in the National Careers Challenge. They each represented the school incredibly well, with some fantastic ideas presented to the judging panel. 

“In 2023, a fantastic team of Year 8 students were triumphant at the event, and we have high hopes that our teams can go all the way this year too!”   

The National Careers Challenge is an award-winning flagship school delivery programme that allows young people to develop the skills needed to make informed decisions about their futures.