Careers

Careers Lead: Mr C. Jasper

Email: CJasper@CRGS.co.uk

“High-quality careers guidance is essential to enable all children and young people to understand the range of options available to them and realise their potential.” Ofsted, 2023

At Colchester Royal Grammar School we hold the aim to enable all our students to reach their fullest potential. In our context, this means students are supported to reach the highest aspirations – alongside guidance throughout their time with us – to go on to their next steps.

Our careers programme:

• Gives students an insight into what options are available to them post-16 and post-18
• Supports students in taking up the opportunities and experiences that will aid them once they leave us
• Promotes and empowers independence and resilience
• Educate students on what it means to work
• Challenges stereotypes and promotes inclusion and diversity
• Enables our students go on to sustained employment, alongside personal and economic wellbeing.

Careers map

 

Careers Map

The Gatsby Benchmarks
Our Careers Policy uses the national Gatsby Benchmarks to underpin its success. This eight benchmark can be found here; at CRGS, this means:

• We have embedded our careers provision throughout students’ PSHE
• Students are given information on the current labour market at intervals, through our careers newsletter
• Offering students dedicated personal careers guidance in Year 10 and 12, aimed to support their next-step decisions
• Linking our curriculum to careers during National Careers Week
• Give our students opportunities to engage with both employers and educators through visits, talks and our annual careers fair.

Careers at CRGS - Gatsby Benchmarks

gatsby benchmark

Careers Appointments
A central part of our careers provision is the advice we offer students. Our careers advice is offer by an independent external provider: Essex Youth Service. Students in Year 11 and Year 12 are scheduled an appointment during the academic year in which they can discuss their aspirations and ambitions. We encourage students to prepare for these appointments beforehand, by consider what their interest and skills are, and what they might have an interest in studying later on.
 
Students are notified of their time via email and by Teams reminder - the appointment list is also put up in school. If a student misses their appointment, we will do our best to reschedule, but cannot guarantee this. Please see also the Careers Assembly Presentation here.

 

Measures of Success
Our careers programme is valuable only insofar as it meets the needs of our students. We therefore believe in robust and continuous monitoring and evaluation of our provision:

 
• At the start of the year, students complete the Future Skills Questionnaire which allows us to identify our priorities throughout the year, and we routinely audit our students’ opinions following careers events.
• An Internal Leadership Review is conducted at the start of each year in conjunction with the Careers Lead, Leadership Team and other stakeholders. This allows us to identify our key priorities for the year.
• Alongside side this, termly Compass+ evaluations monitor our progress against the eight Gatsby Benchmarks.
• Finally, we survey students throughout the year on their experiences of their careers provision.
 
We invite all feedback, and should you have any comments on our careers programme, please email them to CJasper@CRGS.co.uk

 

Careers Events

Careers Fair
Our in-house careers fair occurs in Summer Term, and our Year 10 and 12 students are invited to meet with a range of employers from multiple fields, including medicine, law and engineering. Alongside this, students are given a session on what makes a good CV and interview technique.

Super Saturday
A central part of our careers-offer is Super Saturday, which sees 70 volunteers offer more than 200 ‘interviews’ to our Year 13s in supporting their future applications. These interviews are carried out by specialists in the fields our students of thinking of applying for, alongside more general interviews.

Headmaster’s Appointments
All our Year 11 students are invited to a one-to-one discussion with the headmaster to discuss their academic progress and thoughts on their next steps.

 

Student destinations
The vast majority of our students go to Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College or other Russell Groups universities. Degree apprenticeships are now becoming increasingly popular, with recent students going to Dyson, KPMG, JPMorgan, EY, and Allen and Overy, amongst others. With the nature of our students, some also apply to prestigious universities abroad, with America and Hong Kong being the most popular destinations.

2024 -25 Student Destinations

Apprenticeship / Degree apprenticeship

1%

University (All)

96%

University (Russell Group)

83%

University (Oxbridge)

16%

University (Abroad)

1%

Other (Gap year, work)

4%

 

Useful Websites
Further information can be found by following the links below. Should you have any further queries, please do contact us.

Labour Market Information 
District Labour Market Posters - this link offers an insight into which sectors are currently growing the most within Essex. 
Where Next? - this guide offers an insight into the Labour Market in the 2020s, including the skills needed to access future careers. 
LMI For All - designed for easy access, Labour Market Information for All offers insight into information including emerging skills trends.  
 
Further Information
Shaping Futures - Shaping Futures is a wholesale series of guidance for a range of careers aspects, including Labour Marley Information, UCAS, specific sectors (including the NHS and STEM) and the Skillsometer quiz
Colcestrian Futures - Colcestrian futures is the alumni website and can be used to reach out to OCs for advice and work experience. 
National Careers Service - this website offers a range of support, including taking a skills assessment, exploring careers and finding a course.