Careers Programmes

We make students aware of different progression routes, with opportunities to meet a wide range of employers and apprenticeship providers, and we prepare them for future transitions, including progression into higher levels of study where appropriate, and to build employability skills.  We work towards achieving the eight Gatsby Benchmarks. 

Our Careers Programme is based on DOTS principles: developing  Self-Awareness, identifying Opportunities, making Decisions, and creating a Transition plan.  We align to the Career Development Institute’s Careers Development Framework and with the VESPA Mindset a teaching model that draws together current thinking from psychology, business and sport to inspire, motivate and support students to work towards their full potential. Progress Coaches, teachers, and the Careers and Employability team work closely together to ensure that we deliver a coherent programme across all college activities.

The Unifrog careers platform underpins the programme and ensures that every student has a vast array of careers information available at their fingertips throughout their time at Long Road and beyond.  Students are introduced to Unifrog in tutorials from the Autumn term.  Progress Coaches, teachers, and careers staff guide students to complete their personality, interests, skills, and work environment, quizzes, shortlist university and apprenticeship destinations, and to record activities and skills which are crucial to securing work.  We also signpost students to other sources of online information to complement Unifrog.  Parents can set up their own Unifrog account – please email careers@longroad.ac.uk for a code and instructions.

Progress Coaches support students through the university application process, run the Aim Higher programme, and the Russell Group preparation programme.  The Biology Course Team Leader runs MedSquad for aspiring medical students.  The Careers Team delivers an annual Degree Apprenticeships Preparation Programme which is led by Long Road alumni who are now degree apprentices.

We encourage all students to engage in careers activities within the college and to take advantage of external opportunities, e.g., industry Insight days and work experience, which we advertise through Careers Space - Home.  We have set aside a slot in the timetable entitled ‘Progression Planning’ for students to reflect upon and plan this element of their study programme.  This slot can also be used to complete Unifrog tasks.  Students can book a one-to-one personal guidance session with a Level 6 qualified careers' advisor at any time through a link on Careers Space and teachers and Progress Coaches can refer students when necessary.

We provide dedicated support to EHCP students, working closely with the Additional Learning Support Department to facilitate one or more careers guidance meetings.  We run a workshop with external facilitators designed to help students with additional needs prepare for the workplace, secure work experience, and build skills.  Parents will be invited to participate in this in December 2025.

We run employer-led challenges where students work in interdisciplinary teams over several weeks to solve industry-related problems or complete projects guided by professionals.  These are designed to foster teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills.  Each challenge has a sustainability dimension, and we are looking to gradually expand the range of challenges to all subjects.   

We run the Sookio Marketing Challenge and the Ramboll Engineering Challenge annually.  For Sookio, we welcome back experts and alumni to work with students over four weeks to learn about the principles of marketing, market research, audience analysis, and to design and pitch their own brand. 

The Ramboll Engineering Challenge, led by engineering experts, also runs over four weeks during which students work to a brief to build structures out of cardboard and learn how to use modelling software. It includes a visit to the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering where students build and race model electric cars. 

We are continuing to add more employer-led challenges of various types and lengths to give as many students as possible an opportunity to experience different sectors and meet and interact with employers in a meaningful way. 

In 2025–26, we are increasing our focus on Creative Careers and will promote Creative Careers Month in November 2025 and have invited a panel of experts to talk about ‘How to build a creative career’ on 19^th November.

We are continuing to use Virtual Reality resources supported by the Local Skills Improvement Fund, introducing students to Bodyswaps VR modules focused on employability skills and work-readiness, and we have created several 360-degree VR films with the NHS highlighting laboratory and vascular science roles, Illumina, a leading genomics company, highlighting bioinformatics, software development, and laboratory scientist roles, and Murphy, the contractor building the Cambridge South Railway Station, focusing on engineering.   These videos have been made freely available to all schools and colleges through the Careers Hub and can be accessed here: Work Experience - 360-degree, immersive videos - YouTube

We have partnered with Stickerbook, a social enterprise supported by the University of Cambridge, to launch a competition for students from several colleges to collect ‘stickers’ on sustainability themes.  The Long Road students who collect the most by watching short videos and answering questions will be taken on a visit to a sustainability-related destination.  Last year, we visited the Cambridge Conservation Initiative at the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge.  

We regularly post reports of our careers activities on LinkedIn, where you can follow the college page: Long Road Sixth Form College.

Any employers, universities, FE colleges, apprenticeship and technical education providers, or voluntary organisations wishing to participate in our events and those wishing to offer work experience opportunities, class talks, challenges or provide feedback, should contact  careers@longroad.ac.uk in the first instance.  We would love to hear from you.  

The 2025-26 programme is summarised below and will continue to evolve with new activities added throughout the year as they are arranged and confirmed.