Careers Programmes

Our Careers Programme takes students through four key stages: developing  Self-Awareness, identifying Opportunities, making Decisions, and creating a Transition plan (DOTS principles) and we also refer to the Career Development Institute’s Careers Development Framework.  It aligns 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 careers programme across all college activities.   We work towards achieving the eight Gatsby Benchmarks. 

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 personality, interests, skills, and work environment, quizzes, shortlist university and apprenticeships 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. 

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.  

We encourage all students to engage with careers activities within the college and to take advantage of external opportunities which we advertise through a dedicated SharePoint site called Careers Space e.g., industry Insight days and work experience.  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. In 2024-25, we are providing dedicated support to EHCP students who will have an introductory meeting followed by one or more one-hour careers guidance meetings.  We will also run a workshop designed to help students with additional needs prepare for the workplace with an external facilitator.   

The careers programme has a clear focus on developing self-awareness, self-confidence, self-management, and important employability skills for the future.  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. 

We have strong relationships with several NHS trusts, research institutes, and companies on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.  We run an annual NHS Careers Week with visits by NHS professionals to classrooms and a dedicated careers fair where different NHS specialisms can meet students and explain the career opportunities they can offer. 

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.   

In 2024-25, we are running the Sookio Marketing Challenge and the Ramboll Engineering Challenge for the second time after trialling them last year.  We welcome back experts and alumni in leading marketing roles 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.  This year we have expanded our Ramboll Engineering Challenge to include a visit to the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering where students build and race model electric cars, and a visit to Churchill College, Cambridge to take part in a sustainable building activity.  These bookend four weekly sessions of building bridges out of cardboard with Ramboll.  We also run a challenge for Health and Social Students with the NHS Integrated Care Board.   

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 four 360-degree VR films with the NHS highlighting laboratory and vascular science roles and three films with Illumina, a leading genomics company, highlighting bioinformatics, software development, and laboratory scientist roles.   These videos have been made freely available to all schools and colleges through the Careers Hub.  This year we plan to make VR films at the site of the new Cambridge South railway station with Murphy, the project contractor.  

This year we have partnered with Stickerbook a social enterprise supported by the University of Cambridge to launch a competition for Long Road and Colchester Sixth Form students to collect ‘stickers’ on sustainability themes.  The students who collect the most by watching short videos and answering questions will visit the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership at the retrofitted and ultra-sustainable Entopia building and will meet green entrepreneurs and innovators.  

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 2024-25 programme is summarised below and will continue to evolve with new activities added throughout the year as they are arranged and confirmed.