Higher Education & Careers

Click here for the 2024 UCAS information evening materials

Preparing for your future

The Careers Department at Comberton Sixth Form gives support to students to enable them to make informed choices on post 18 options.  We aim to equip our students to make the decisions and plans that are right for them and move on to fulfilling working lives.

We provide our students with a variety of sources of independent careers advice, by inviting employers, alumni and parents/carers into school to give talks and take part in careers fairs and other events. If you are interested in attending one of our career events, please complete the following form Building a Parent, Student & Alumni Network (typeform.com)

There is a well-stocked careers section within the library and resources centre. Our students have access to Unifrog, a career planning and universal destinations platform, to help them consider all of their post-18 options.  

Mrs Lawson circulates a weekly update of careers related opportunities and information via email and students can access the careers padlet here: Careers Padlet  This includes information on apprenticeships, work experience opportunities, events and lectures, local labour market information, gap years and other career related information.

Students are encouraged to undertake periods of course and career-linked work experience and volunteering. Our year 12 pupils complete a 1-week self-organised work experience placement during futures week in the summer term.  Application support for this is available in the Careers Office. There are also many work experience opportunities throughout the year that are also communicated to our students via the Careers Padlet 

Students are able to request a 1:1 meeting with our careers leader to discuss post 18 options, work experience help and support with apprenticeship applications. We also work with Form The Future to deliver career guidance and events for our students.

The careers department works closely with the cabin to support our students with SEND. We also work with a number of charities and organisations, such as the Social Mobility Business Partnership and Prime Commitment, to encourage diversity and inclusion.

Our Comberton Village College Website provides further details of our provision from Year 7 through to Year 13 and can be accessed using: https://www.combertonvc.org/parent-and-student-information/careers-information.php  Our careers programmes for year 12 and 13 can be found on the side bar on the left of this page.

For further information please contact Mrs Fay Lawson, our Career Guidance and Development Lead, on 01223 262503 or email flawson@combertonvc.org

Applying to university

The large majority of our students will continue on to higher education. We help students at every stage of the UCAS process from arranging visits to universities, selecting courses and writing personal statements.

Stephen Leggott, Deputy Head of Sixth Form and Higher Education Tutor, can be contacted at sleggott@combertonvc.org

Students applying to early entry courses, including Oxbridge, are able to access specific support from Laura Peacey, our Deputy Head who oversees Most Able & Talented. Mrs Peacey keeps students up to date with relevant opportunities through the MAT and Early Entry padlet available here: MAT & Early Entry Padlet. Mrs Peacey can be reached at lpeacey@combertonvc.org 

Support for those planning on applying to university begins at the start of Year 12 and follows a comprehensive support programme, details of which can be found below:

• Higher Education Calendar

 

Monitoring Provision

Our careers education, information, advice and guidance provision is benchmarked against current best practice and legislation, and monitored using student, parent/carer, employer and teacher feedback, along with our destinations data. We currently follow statutory guidance and use the eight benchmarks in the Gatsby Foundation Report on Good Career Guidance.

We aim to do everything we can to inspire and encourage each of our students to realise their full potential and have happy and successful working lives.