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Nescot is celebrating National Careers Week (1-5 March) with a range of activities for current students including talks from sector professionals, one-to-one consultations and highlighting a range of online resources. But careers is not just a focus for one week at Nescot. As a lead member of the Coast to Capital Careers Hub, the college is at the forefront of careers education and advice throughout the year.

Careers interviews at Nescot

One of the ways Nescot supports its students and applicants I through a professional careers service. Our careers team offer one-to-one interviews to help learners understand their progression opportunities and clarify their career intentions and objectives.

We spoke to a couple of students who have recently had careers interviews to find out how they helped:

Chloe is currently on a course at Nescot and is thinking of a change of direction.

“My careers interview gave me a clear overview of my options and a good understanding of what different career routes involved. After the interview I had a much better idea of what my next steps should be. The careers team offer a really good service.”

Matthew is finishing college this year and wanted more information on his future options:

“The careers adviser was very helpful and the session gave me a broader understanding of some of the opportunities you hear about, for example apprenticeships. She helped me understand what these really are and how you get onto one. Talking with her helped me finalise my plans for next year.”

Innovative Work Experience

Hands-on experience of the workplace is a key part of the practical training involved in many of our courses. A great example of this comes from our creative media department. As part of their work experience and to honour Black History Month, students from Creative Media and Music were asked by social enterprise The Black Curriculum to create the visuals to a recording of a poem and edit it together. The company agreed to oversee and sign off the creative brief that we produced and the students then had 5 weeks to complete the project. When the students had finished the video we did an online session with the Black Curriculum on black history within popular culture.

Performing arts careers week

Early on each academic year, our performing arts department host a careers week, bringing a range of industry insiders and practitioners in for career-focused workshops.

Practical sessions from actors, directors and musicians are combined with information on your rights as a performer, self-employment and industry bodies such as Equity. Guest tutors this year included actors Tom Wisdom and Gary Grant, theatre company founder Helen Squires and recent Nescot alumnus Ryan Docherty, now at Central School of Speech and Drama.

Head of Department Leanne Bentley says; “Every year, students from Nescot’s performing arts departments are moving into the industry, and many of them bring their experience and insight back to help current students. Industry knowledge is as important as practical skills to success in developing a career.”

Next Steps virtual fair

Current Nescot students will be invited to take part in our Next Steps fair on 23 March, involving talks and presentations from over 20 universities.

Coast to Capital Careers Fair

Nescot will be taking a major role in organising and running the C2C virtual careers fair in June.