Beyond College
A world of opportunity
Our Careers programme and guidance service enables students to look forward to a bright future beyond college, with confidence. We achieve this by:
- Having a dedicated careers expert who knows each student’s evolving interests, skills and strengths well enough to help him identify the most suitable career paths and options
- Developing career awareness as early as Year 7 through various projects that include fun, team-based activities such as the Channel Islands Student Business Challenge as well as the more professional, individual skills training for our older students, including one-to-one interviews with employers, CV preparation and so on
- Offering our Year 12 students weekly, careers-dedicated lessons
- Offering our Year 13 students one-to-one careers coaching with our Head of Careers, who will guide them through the options, applications and documentation needed for higher education (see below) and in the workplace
- Fostering close links with our corporate Foundation Partners via our Foundation Partners Engagement Calendar of Events, who support our students throughout school by presenting talks on specific industries or careers, graduate opportunities, bursaries, traineeships and more. We are fortunate to count among our Foundation Partners many Old Victorians, from senior leaders to more recent graduates. Collectively they are able to offer career advice to current students and future graduates, sometimes mentoring opportunities and access to a worldwide network in just about every industry or field
- Find out more about our valued Foundations Partners.
For any careers or higher education queries, contact Head of Careers, Suzanne Job: s.job@vcj.sch.je
Finding the right path for our students' futures
Careers education and guidance is essential in helping young people choose programmes that suit their interests, abilities and individual needs. A robust careers programmes helps avoid disengagement, puts school learning into a wider and more relevant context, and helps raise aspirations.
The Victoria College programme helps students to plan and manage their careers effectively, ensuring progression which is ambitious and aspirational. It promotes equality of opportunity, embraces diversity and challenges stereotypes.
The policy is guided by the Gatsby benchmarks and conforms to statutory requirements.
Victoria College is committed to providing all students in Years 7-13 with a programme of activities and supporting activity. The programme is delivered to Years 7-9 one hour a week, Years 10-11 in tutor time and Year 12 one hour per week for the whole year. It is also supported through assemblies, presentations, employer visits, independent work experiences, seminars, workshops and 1:1 sessions.
A number of events, integrated into the school careers programmes, offers providers an opportunity to come into school to speak with students.
- Year 9 Options Evening
- Year 11 lunchtime talks for students wishing to change school
- Sixth Form Options Evening
- Higher Education Fair run by Skills Jersey
- Skills Show run by Skills Jersey
- 90% of Year 11 College Students continue to Sixth Form
- KS5 students receive at least one interview with a Sixth Form team
- KS4 students receive at least one interview with the Careers Team
Higher Education
Victoria College has a strong track record of securing for our students their first choice university, which tend to include some of the most respected establishments such as Oxbridge, Russell Group institutions and universities abroad.
In 2018 (updated stats), almost two-thirds of our graduates went on to study at a Times Top 50 university, which includes approximately one-third headed for Russell Group universities. Sixth Form students and parents will be briefed on how to prepare for university applications during the Spring term of Year 12.
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Curriculum
Careers, employability and enterprise experiences are taken very seriously here at Victoria College. Our students have big choices to make, both post 16 and post 18. Sixth form, college, university, traineeship, apprenticeship, employment, the possibilities are seemingly endless, and the choices can feel overwhelming. Our Careers Department is here to help both students and parents/carers to navigate these pathways and make informed choices.
For up-to-date information on the local labour market click here.
For information on apprenticeships in Jersey click here.
Jersey Finance
Jersey Finance have created a selection of short 'career masterclasses' videos that give some insights into a selection of careers within finance, they include career paths and qualifications required. To view the video click here.
Unifrog
This outstanding careers tool brings together all the available information about higher education and training into one single, impartial, user-friendly platform. In here, you will find everything you need to prepare yourself for making decisions about what you want to do. There are also tools to help you with your personal statement, CV and application forms. Available free for students, please contact Suzanne Job for login details. You can access the Unifrog site by clicking here.
Careers Team
Our aim is to develop student employability skills, resilience and career management skills and inform about local, national and international labour market information, guide students to explore and develop career ideas and high aspirations, educate students on the complete spectrum of post 16 and post 18 pathways and prepare them for successful post 16 or post 18 transitions. In addition to this we follow up and where necessary offer further support to students after they leave us.
We understand the journey from starting in Year 7 to finishing school post 18 can be bewildering, for both parents and children. There are choices to make, at Key Stage 4 when making GCSE option choices, making post 16 decisions and finally supporting choices Post 18. We are here to help.
Suzanne Job Head of Careers, or 01534 638266
Alan Falle, Assistant Head, Head of Sixth Form or 01534 638257
Dawn Murphy Deputy Head of Sixth Form
Karen Palfreyman Assistant Head, Curriculum, Teaching & Learning
UCAS Qualifications Statement
Please click on the link below to download the UCAS Qualifications Statement.
Useful Links for Parents
Ensuring your children are set up for a successful career, future financial security and a good quality of life is a pressing challenge for every parent. As parents, your children will look to you for advice and guidance even if they don't like to admit it!
We believe that each student can achieve his ambition whatever course of action is chosen. A role for parents is to instil three core values to aid them in their careers - self-belief, resilience and discipline. With these three skills developed over time, your children can rise to the top of any profession they choose. Parents can draw from their own experience, teach their children that it won't be a straight path and there may be bumps in the road and times of low motivation, but equip them with the mind-set to overcome these and move forward is the best gift a parent can give.
Where do our students go?
Destinations
One of the ways that we look to improve our careers provision is to regularly monitor and review our destination data. The Careers and Sixth Form Team support students during their post 16 transition. We also do our best to track student’s destinations for three years after they leave school. It’s always lovely to catch up and see what our students are doing and to invite them into school to share their experiences and inspire the next generation.
We take care to support students that have left Victoria College and offer a service for all previous students to call or email the Careers Team if they feel unsettled, or unsure of the choices they made or are not receiving the support they need to succeed.
Our students move on to a variety of destinations including apprenticeships, employment and university. The chart below shows what our 2020 Year 13 Leavers went on to do.
