Starting the new year with a visit to Egglescliffe School & Sixth Form College careers day

Smart questions and plenty of interest

High praise for the teachers and students of Egglescliffe School and Sixth Form College as Sofia's supply chain plan manager and careers day attendee, Graham Wright declared their January 2023 event one of the best he had been to.

With more than 120 students visiting the Sofia stand, and ages ranging from 12 to 18, both Graham and Sofia's education consultant Rich Hurst felt the level of interest and range of questions from the students was highly impressive and they gave kudos to all those involved.

Each year group - from Years 7 to 13 - visited the hall separately, and students were brought into the venue in batches enabling a total of more than 1500 to attend the event. It featured a wide range of employers alongside Sofia including Labman Automation, Kier Engineering, the local police and fire brigade plus apprenticeship providers.

Graham said: "The school wanted its students to be enriched by the experience and that passion came through in how the event was organised and managed, as well as in the outstanding level of student engagement".

Students were tasked with asking interesting and challenging questions, with attending companies being asked to choose the best questions at the end of the day. For Sofia, student questions included: what determines the size of the turbines, how are the turbines transported to the site and how are the cables buried.

The school was strong on diversity, particularly highlighted by the number of female students showing a high level of interest in engineering and science based subjects and job roles.

"Overall the students were hugely interested in offshore wind, and I’m more than hopeful some of them will continue this interest into full time employment within our sector."

Jan 2023