Careers Day

On Wednesday 20th February, there was a special Careers Day at our school. For our P7/6 and P6/5 classes this meant the majority of the day was spent learning about a range of different careers from special guest visitors.

From 10-12 there was a Career ‘Speed Meet’ where small groups of children went around tables for 5 minutes speaking to a number of different guests from a range of careers. Our incredible special guests were:

• Erin Thomson (Clydesdale Bank – Human Resources)
• Rachel Kangley (Clydesdale Bank – Complaints Handler)
• Paul McGinley (Clydesdale Bank – Business Systems Analyst)
• Kaye McFall (Blochairn Housing Services Assistant)
• Danielle Murphy (Blochairn Housing Services Assistant)
• Bronwyn Tibbs (Rehabilitation Support Coordinator)
• Kerry Graham (Greggs – Customer Assistant)
• Brian Tibbs (Talbot Association)
• Richard Sherlock (Royston Youth Action – Senior Youth Worker)
• Connor McKee (Royston Youth Action – Outdoor Youth Worker)
• Karen Scott (PhD Student at University of Strathclyde)
• John Burns (Fleming Buildings Limited – Assistant Site Manager)
• David Young (Fleming Buildings Limited – Joiner)
• Willie Steer (Thales Optronics – Mechanical Design Engineer)
• Michael Tuohy (North Kelvin Sports –
• Ross Steer (Punch Consulting – Civil Engineer)

We were delighted with all of the volunteers who gave up their own time to speak to our children. The children were exceptionally engaged throughout the time and gained a lot of information about some jobs they didn’t know existed but also, a deeper insight into jobs they did know about. Once they finished, children filled out comment cards about their experience during the ‘Speed Meet’. Here are some of the comments from the children:

• “Hearing about how things work in Greggs was fascinating”
• I enjoyed Ross because his job is amazing. His job is basically making blueprints and builds like bridges.”
• “It was really fun because I got to learn about different jobs and experiences. Also it was great asking questions.”
• “We loved hearing about other peoples jobs. My favourite person was Rachel. It was so much fun.”
• “My favourite part was listening to other people’s jobs and getting inspired.”
• “I liked Brian because he told me some fascinating things about different homes for different causes.”
• “Today I learned about lots of different jobs I was so interested and I loved it. I hope we do it again.”
• “I liked how Michael has a job with sports as that’s what I like doing.”
• “I enjoyed the experience because it gives multiple choices for the close future.”
• “Willie showed us lenses that he had designed and how they worked. It was really cool.”

In the afternoon, the two classes were treated to inspirational talks from Karen Scott and Craig MacDonald. Karen is well known to the children as she previously worked in the Royston Food Hub for North Glasgow Community Food Initiative. She gave an inspirational message about how hard you need to work to achieve what you want in life. She gave good details about her journey into her current role as a PhD student at the University of Strathclyde where she has some responsibility teaching students. She discussed all of the different jobs she has worked, places she had lived and different qualifications she has achieved.

Craig MacDonald is a pilot who works for Norwegian Airlines. He described how he left school earlier than he should have and how he wished he had stayed on. His dream was to be a pilot so he worked hard to earn enough money to pay for flying lessons. After learning to fly planes he has managed to work his way up so that he is now a Senior First Officer with Norwegian Airlines. He had loads of interesting stories about plane journeys he has been on and places around the world that he has flown to. He described how he flew for 16 hours from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles which meant he flew over the North Pole! When doing this journey he achieved his dream of flying the Boeing 777 and his next target is to become a Captain.

P1 and P2 were also treated to a talk from one of our P1 dad’s. He works as a manager at a recycling plant and he was able to share all about his job to the youngest children in our school. As a school we are delighted with the range of adults who came to our school, including several parents and relations. Without their support of our careers day the day couldn’t happen so we cannot thank all of the adults who came enough!