THE HAREFIELD ACADEMY APPRENTICESHIP FAIR
On Tuesday 14th March The Harefield Academy hosted its inaugural Apprenticeship Fair. The event was the brainchild of the Director of Sixth Form, Carmel Brady, who wanted to offer both the Year 11 and Sixth Form students the opportunity to look at wider career opportunities locally. The Sixth Form team and The Academy’s Connexions Advisor, Pauline Flood, joined forces to create and host the event before the exam season began.
The Circle Room was cleared for the morning and the event started with Ms Flood giving a short talk on Apprenticeships - what was out there locally - and myth busting. A wealth of Apprenticeship companies were invited to attend: Uxbridge College, JGA, Henry’s Construction, Redwood Skills, West Herts College and 3AAA. All these companies were represented at the Fair and each gave mini-talks on all the types of apprenticeships they offered.
Once the talks were over, students were invited to walk around the Fair and meet the representatives from the companies, collecting further information and learning how to apply for the Apprenticeships they were interested in. The event was attended by 85 students from both Year 11 and the Sixth Form. We understand that this was the first Apprenticeship Fair to be held by a Hillingdon school and senior personnel from Connexions came to look at it. Mrs Brady said, ‘We are delighted that the Apprenticeship Fair was so well attended and we had many lovely comments from the students, staff and the exhibitors themselves about the event. Clearly there is a demand for Apprenticeships in the borough and we hope that offering the students impartial advice will help them choose the right programme. As a result we hope to run the event next year only on a much larger scale if we can get more companies involved.’
