Career Zone
Part of the Institute for Career Enhancement
Our career zone is packed full of useful resources, from help writing your CV and personal statement, to information for parents and our links with employers.
The Senior Manager responsible for careers at the College is Steven Hunt. Our Careers Advisor is Will Crowhurst. Both Steven and Will can be contacted via careers@farn-ct.ac.uk, or by calling 01252 407147.
Careers strategy
Farnborough College of Technology and University Centre Farnborough are fully committed to ensuring that all learners acquire the skills, knowledge and attitudes to manage their learning and career progression. This is reflected in Mission and Vision Statements:
Mission: ‘A Community University that serves people and businesses across the region’
Vision: ‘100% of programmes help people gain skills and experience to be successful in life’
As qualifications evolve and the nature of employment changes, it is increasingly important that all learners (whether actual or potential) have access to the knowledge, skills and resources they need to be able to make informed decisions about their future choices, both in life and employment. This will include meaningful engagement industries and further and higher education.
The College is committed to meeting its duties in relation to the provision of a careers programme including independent careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG). It is informed by the eight Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance:
1. A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance
And:
- Careers guidance and access for education and training providers (DfE, July 2021)
- OFSTED Common Inspection Framework
The purpose of our Careers Programme involves:
- Establishing the College’s approach to develop learners’ understanding of career opportunities and progression routes through their study programmes and wider activities.
- Laying out the College’s role in supporting learners to successfully progress into employment, self-employment, independent living, further and higher education.
- Ensuring high quality, learner and industry-centric approaches such as independent information, advice and guidance, annual use and dissemination of LMI
- Ensuring learners are empowered to develop career plans with personal SWOTs, psychometric tests etc.; thereby agreeing targeted hard and soft skills to development professional personal and social attitudes
- Raising aspirations, promoting both social mobility and economic prosperity
- Ensuring through Open Events and Careers Events, both pre-16 and post 16 students and supported to make informed choices
- Ensuring parents are supported to understand choices and options
- Providing this service, in partnership with other agencies and organisations as required (local authority, schools, employers through our Industry Committee and Board…)
- Having a careers’ service committed to fair access and equality of opportunity – with impartial careers advice and guidance; raising awareness of prejudice issues, discrimination, stereotyping that work against equal opportunities and act as barriers to certain professions and can still exist within a work-based context
- Ensuring accessible record keeping on Pro Monitor that enables learners and stakeholders to track advice given to individual students.
- The College posting its careers programme on its website
It is important to us that our Careers Programmes are meeting the needs of our students, employers, and colleagues in other institutions. We will measure this by recording all activities carried out in this planner, make use of the Compass Benchmark Tool, and use the methods below. The Careers Lead meets with all staff involved in delivering the careers programme, and our Enterprise Adviser, at the end of each term to review the results of our activities and adjust plans where needed.
- Student/employer engagement:
- Number of careers appointments made
- Availability of careers appointments
- Attendance at talks/workshops
- Number of jobs added to Jobs Board
- Open/click through rates from email bulletins
- Interaction with social media content
- Student/employer feedback:
- Involvement with Enterprise Advisor Network, with termly meetings
- Surveys following an appointment/workshop/talk
- From student forums/conferences
- Anecdotal feedback in case studies
- Destination and exit surveys
We work with an external Enterprise Adviser to help guide the College in providing its careers services. Find out more in this short video.
Independent advice and guidance:
Our Careers Library provides one-to-one sessions where your individual needs can be met, including:
- Writing your CV and Personal Statement
- Deciding which career path is right for you after college
- Finding job vacancies
- Choosing a degree and university
- Choosing an Apprenticeship
Students can book an appointment with our Careers Adviser by emailing careers@farn-ct.ac.uk.
Our Careers Advisers are impartial and independent, thanks to our relationship with Hampshire Futures.
Career programmes
We’ve mapped out all our Careers Activities by term across the year. These plans are reviewed at the end of each academic year, but monitored termly to introduce new activities when needed.
Upcoming careers events
Date | Event | Location | How to book |
Tuesday 5 October 2021 | Structuring your UCAS Personal Statement | In class | Via tutor |
Tuesday 12 October 2021 | Finding and Preparing for Work Placements | In class and tutorials | Via tutor |
TBC - November | University Options Evening | TBC | TBC |
Wednesday 2 March 2022 | Careers Fair | TBC | Drop-in event |
7-12 March 2022 | National Careers Week: Talks and Workshops | Cross-college | TBC |
Careers during Lockdown
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the College continued to deliver all careers services to its students. See below for some of the activities that took place virtually:
- Careers Appointments – all delivered virtually via Teams
- National Careers Week – a huge range of virtual events involving employers, universities, workshops, and advice sessions
- Meet the Professionals – we met with a range of industry professionals via Zoom to find out more about their work and shared with students
- Virtual Open Event – we created a new platform for School Leavers to find out about courses, careers, and labour market intelligence
- Talking to Universities – classes across the College had virtual talks with universities to look at their progression options
- National Apprenticeship Week – our Open Event platform was revitalised with Apprenticeship information for all students to access
Career highlights
As well as the termly activities above, you have access to a variety of career finding and planning resources throughout the year (shown below), as well as key events through which you can explore your career options:
- Access to computers to write your CV and research careers
- Leaflets and information on career planning
- Prospectuses from a range of universities
- Resources for completing your UCAS application
