Welcome to Millom School’s careers information for employers, employees, education providers and training providers. This section of the website has been specifically designed to provide you with key information about how you can support our young people to make informed choices about their future. We want our pupils to choose progression routes that are suited to their skills and talents and that will lead to confident youngsters entering the modern workplace equipped with the knowledge and skills for success. We recognise that engagement with employers, work places and education/training providers plays a vital role in supporting children making such important choices. We hope you find this useful and are happy to take feedback about the information we are making accessible to you.
Here you can find some suggestions about events and activities employers (including education/training providers) can contribute to:
• Represent your business or establishment at the school’s careers fair
• Provide a mock interview for a Year 11 student on Mock Interview Day (October/November)
• Offer work experience placements to students in Years 10 (mid-February) and 12 (July)
• Give a talk or assembly to a whole year groups or key stage about your business, the careers you offer or about skills that you value in the workplace
• Give a talk or provide a workshop for a smaller group e.g. up to a class of 34
• Provide coaching sessions for small groups on key skills e.g. CV writing, letters of application, interview skills
• Support after school clubs e.g. STEM club, bike club, art club
• Offer a project or competition for students with support
• Come in and visit some lessons and meet some of the school staff
• Provide labour market information for students, staff, parents
• Support our school events e.g. music and drama productions
• Contribute sponsorship e.g. for prizes at Presentations Evening, for equipment etc
• Become a school governor
If you are interested in supporting any event or activity in school, please contact the careers leader Mrs C Vance (Assistant Headteacher) on 01229 772300 or genenquiries@millom.cumbria.sch.uk We would love to hear from you!
Give an Hour Campaign
The Careers and Enterprise Company are currently campaigning for employers to ‘Give an Hour’ of their time to ‘Make a Difference’ to the future career choices that a young person makes. You can register your interest at https://giveanhour.co.uk/ You can find some helpful suggestions of careers activities you could do in school with an hour of your time. You can register your interest on this website and a regional Enterprise Coordinator will contact you to discuss your involvement further.
Enterprise Coordinators and Advisers
Millom School is a partner of the new Cumbria Careers Hub, a pilot launched by the Cumbria LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and the Careers and Enterprise Company. We are working with a regional Enterprise Coordinator, Alison Beard to improve partnerships between business and school. We are also working with an Enterprise Adviser (EA), Emily McDonnell, who is a volunteer from business working with the school’s leadership team to provide strategic support for engaging employers with education providers. EAs are supported by trained Enterprise Coordinators and have access to a wider EA network of contacts.
Hi, I am Emily ?
I grew up in Cumbria, attending Dowdales for my GCSEs, and only leaving the area when I attended University in Sheffield. I returned to Cumbria in 2009 and started working with the NHS and training in Human Resources. I am currently Head of Resourcing for Sellafield Limited. I have two daughters and a very hyperactive Border Collie who keep me busy when I am not working.
I offered my time as a volunteer to support Millom School because I was keen to utilise my skills/experience and I could see an opportunity to add value. As a Mum, I also want to ensure career support in schools is really getting the most out of children and opening up their horizons to the vast opportunities that will be available to them.
I have really enjoyed working with Millom School so far and I look forward to continuing this in the future.
You can register your interest in joining the EA network on the Careers and Enterprise website. https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/employers-volunteers/join-enterprise-adviser-network
Work Experience
We encourage our pupils to proactively seek their own work experience. There are two designated weeks in school where all pupils in a particular year group are off timetable and spend the week in a work place of their choosing. For Year 10, this experience takes place in February, for Year 12 it is in July. However, we also encourage students to seek voluntary placements during their holidays, and in the evenings and weekends, to get a taster of a variety of workplaces and employers. Whilst the holiday, evening and weekend placements would be entirely organised by the students and their parents, the school work experience weeks are a much more formal process. Please see the FAQs section below.
Work experience – FAQs – click on the questions to find out more.
As an employer, what can I expect from a student when they first make contact?
A Year 10 or Year 12 student may initially contact you by phone, by email or in person. This is part of their research process, where they examine industries and employers that they might like to work with. The student may identify two or three potential employers. They may ask you if you offer work experience to school students and if a placement would, in theory, be possible during the designated week. They should explain who they are, why they are contacting you and what they hope to get out of such a placement. In school, students are asked to provide details for a first choice and a backup choice, in the event of the first choice being unavailable. We then record this information. Once conversations have been had in school to check the quality of the student’s research and the suitability of their choices, the student should then confirm their first choice of placement with their employer. They should also contact their other choices to inform them that a placement that they might have researched as part of the initial process will not go ahead. The student then confirms their first choice with school. After this, the student will contact you by phone, by email or in person to ask key questions such as timings of the working day, whether they need specialist equipment, lunch arrangements etc. Finally, we commission Brenda Holliday and Associates to carry out a risk assessment of the work place, so Brenda or a member of her team may contact you for more information.
As an employer, is there anything I need to do?
We recommend that employers have Employer Liability Insurance to protect the student (and the employer) in the event of an accident. We do not recommend that students go on placement without ELI being in place. Millom School commission Brenda Holliday and Associates to carry out a risk assessment of the placement so Brenda or her team will be in touch with you. They then communicate findings of the placement suitability assessment to us, so we can advise our students whether the planned placements can go ahead. The students should also inform you of medical needs, again this is communicated via Brenda and her team. The student should bring any required medication to their placement.
We also ask that you kindly complete our paperwork to evaluate the pupil’s performance at the end of their placement. You may also receive a visit or a phone call from a member of the school staff, so we appreciate your cooperation with this. It would be helpful if you could ask to see the student’s work experience booklet, as they are expected to keep a log of their activities and a diary to reflect on key learning points during the placement. We also ask politely that you inform us of any issues during the placement. Issues are rare, but we do need to know if the student is absent, late or behaving in an inappropriate fashion, or being unprofessional in any way.
Can you give me any tips for making the placement even more valuable?
• It would be helpful to plan a range of activities throughout the week
• Students should be encouraged to meet and work with as many different employees as possible
• It would be great if students could learn about different areas of the business
• Students should be encouraged to reflect on their skill development, their personal qualities and their strengths and weaknesses
• They should be encouraged to ask questions about the business and working life in general
• Students should have an opportunity to ask about career progression and different routes within the business
• It would be helpful to tell the student the types of things that employers are looking for e.g. skill development, qualifications, hobbies
• Asking to see a student’s CV or personal statement and giving them feedback on it would be invaluable
• You could set them a specific project (homework) to do, or give them questions and tell them to find the answers!
• It would be helpful to discuss the national and local labour market with them
How are students with special educational needs (SEN) supported?
SEN students are supported through the process by specialist teaching assistants and learning mentors. School staff may support students by helping them write emails or make phone calls, they may also attend a preliminary visit with the student (this is especially for students with autism or with anxiety). The particulars of the educational need or disability are communicated with the employer via Brenda Holliday and Associates but the school SENCO, Mrs Morton, may also contact you with more information. In some cases, the students themselves or their parents/carers are happy to inform the employer of special educational needs. Work experience placements are checked carefully for suitability so we wouldn’t send a student on a placement if we didn’t think they would be able to cope well with it. If you have any questions or concerns during the placement, then please contact the school for advice.
What do I do if I need more copies of the paperwork?
The student should provide you with employer feedback forms. However, you can contact the school to ask for a paper copy or you can download it here. (no live link to pdf yet.)
What can I expect from the students in terms of their behaviour and standards?
Students should:
• Behave in a courteous and respectful manner to employers, employees and customers
• Behave professionally e.g. body language, tone of voice, manner, tidy appearance, formal communication
• Wear professional dress (or dress as appropriate to the work placement)
• Attend well and be punctual, or inform their employer if they are absent or late (there is an expectation that they also let the school know of any absences)
• Follow verbal and written instructions
• Expect to be given supervision but also be able to behave in a trustworthy and reliable way when given independent tasks to complete
• Adhere to health and safety rules
• Follow company protocol