A Careers Champion is a student ambassador who represents one of Liverpool City Regions growth sectors and commits to work with the careers team and other champions to promote specific opportunities and information in their chosen sector. As a school we felt this was programme was important as it is designed to improve pupil, staff and parents’ understanding of the local labour market key sector areas– this knowledge is vital for our young people to understand what opportunities are out there in our city region for them when they leave school.
So, this is our school journey into learning more about the sectors that are key for Liverpool City Region’s economic growth.
May 2024: An introduction to the Student Careers Champions Programme
Our ambassadors were fortunate to receive training from Charlotte Lawrence, our Enterprise Coordinator from the Careers Hub. Charlotte outlined what each sector entailed, the types of jobs available within each sector and the key employability skills that are required.
Students were then tasked to research the sectors and work through a series of activities to help promote this information throughout school. We buddied Y8 with Y7 ambassadors and allocated which sectors each pair would oversee.
The sectors we looked at were Advanced Manufacturing, Construction & Built Environment, Digital & Creative, Green Growth, Health & Life Sciences, Maritime & Logistics, Professional & Business Services and Visitor Economy.
Picture of Charlotte with the full ambassador team who she delivered sector information to
May – July 2024: Displaying key sector information on the plasma sector display screens
The Ambassadors met every two weeks during a lunchtime session to start devising a ‘plasma screen’ for each sector. We have many plasmas throughout school where prominent notices are displayed so we decided to use these to promote the sectors. We felt this would have a much bigger impact and reach more students than just one display board in school which may not be seen by all staff and students.
Examples of two of the plasma screens designed by ambassadors
September – October 2024: Creating sector presentations
As the plasma screens were finalised, the ambassadors (now Y8 and Y9) started working on more in-depth information to be presented to the new Y7 students during form times. Information was gathered from the LCR BeMore website and major employer websites.
We also had several companies come in to talk to the ambassadors, our first guests were David and Daniel from SquareOne Training who delivered an interactive workshop about the Digital and Creative Sector to all our ambassadors. They then spent some additional time with our Digital Champions to support the creation of their presentation. Our Digital Champions practiced their presentation in front of the other ambassadors and received great feedback.
All ambassadors thought the best presentation format to engage Y7 would feature a video of an example of a job from within the sector and a quiz with prizes.
David and Daniel from SquareOne delivering to all ambassadors then spending time with Noah and Will to support the content of their presentation
Sneak peak… one slide from the Digital Champions presentation. One of the quiz questions following watching a video about VFX artists
From November 2024 and Future activities: Visiting sector experts, plasmas and presentations
Using National Green Careers Week for the launch of our plasma screens, one sector will be shared every week on rotation for the rest of the academic year and will be reviewed for next year.
Three more guests have delivered sessions regarding different sectors and to support the champions presentations. They are:
-Peel Ports, Maritime and Logistics
-Russell-Taylor Holdings, Professional and Business Services
-Holiday Inn, Visitor Economy
Health and Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Construction and Green sector guests are underway for the Spring/Summer Term.
The ambassadors started their presentations in December 2024. Presentations will continue throughout the year with Y7 students receiving information on each sector, which will enable us to cover all sectors by the end of the academic year. They did brilliantly in sharing important information about each sector through the use of information, videos and quizzes. Y7 students were engaged and excited to learn more. One form tutor said, The ambassadors were amazing! They owned the room for 15 minutes!
The ambassadors have worked so hard on the project, committed to meeting every two weeks to create their presentations and hear from sector experts. It has been an invaluable experience learning more about the jobs available on our doorstep and sharing that information with our school community. It has given great responsibility to our ambassadors, allowing them to develop their own skill set and it has also ignited interest from younger students wanting to become Careers Ambassadors.
Here is just some of the feedback we have received from the ambassadors:
There are 8 sectors identified by Liverpool City Region as being Growth Sectors. The sector I am in charge of, along with Noah in Y9, is the Digital and Creative sector. I have enjoyed my experience with this project as it has inspired me to investigate jobs that I did not know existed. It also includes me going behind the scenes and finding out more about how the Careers Team works. I am looking forward to our Y7 form presentation later in the year. I like doing the Growth Sector Project as it gives me something to do on rainy days!
Will Farrell, Y8 Careers Ambassador
For the past couple of months the Y8 and Y9 Careers Ambassadors have been working on presentations about the different growth sectors in the Liverpool City Region. There are 8 sectors, including Advanced Manufacturing, Visitor Economy and Digital & Creative. These will be presented to Y7 during form time to inform them of future job vacancies in the Liverpool City Region.
I have been working with my Y8 partner, Hashim, on Visitor Economy and this task includes creating a single slide for the plasma screens around school to inform all students about the different sectors, as well as a PowerPoint for the Y7 presentations. I have enjoyed finding out about this sector and look forward to seeing my slide on the plasmas around school.
Jack Courtney, Y9 Careers Ambassador
Simone Wilson,
Careers Manager,
Wirral Grammar School for Boys
