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Two Gates Primary careers event – Pupils enjoyed an inspirational day hearing about everything from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to mechanical trees in a fascinating careers event.
The students were encouraged to think, “Who am I? Who could I be?” during the event, which launched the school’s ‘Start Small, Dream Big’ Department of Education funded project.
The school, which is part of the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP), welcomed visitors from a range of different careers who shared interesting information about their jobs with the children.
Careers Coordinator and Year 2 teacher Sabrina Williams said: “The aim of the day was to encourage our pupils to have high aspirations of themselves. Even though they’re still very young, it’s important to expose them to a range of careers that they might never have been aware of so they can begin to dream big. We linked our My Happy Mind learning to the day to encourage our children to see how their character strengths link to a range of careers.”
Among the visitors were Fatima, a civil engineer and design coordinator at SYSTRA, who spoke about her experiences working internationally, and Ian, an account manager at DHL, who amazed pupils with all the different methods of transportation the company uses.
Pupils then heard from Harry and Tommy from Tyseley Energy Park (TEP), who spoke about climate change and the important work TEP are doing to improve their sustainability. The children were told about the incredible innovations TEP have been working on, including hydrogen powered buses and even mechanical trees to purify the air.
Lastly, Years 5 and 6 met Kingsley, who works in the creative design sector. They were interested to learn how AI can amplify human creativity, and even got to try using AI themselves. Mrs Williams said: “The children were really wowed by the AI talk. We still hear them talking about it!”
The ATLP is currently rolling out the ‘Start Small, Dream Big’ project across many of its schools. At Two Gates, it forms part of their ambitious new careers curriculum, which is being launched to help primary school children consider their future from a young age. It will include employer encounters integrated into the curriculum and standalone lessons that focus on key issues within employment such as gender stereotypes, socio-economic barriers and developments relating to the AI revolution.
Mrs Williams said: “Our careers event was incredible. You can really tell when the children are engaged, and they were absolutely amazed by our visitors. We’re really thankful for their time and look forward to future projects with them, as we move ahead with our careers curriculum. I hope our children look back on the day and future events when they’re older as formative moments for them”.