How Employer Partners work with us

Employer Engagement Opportunities

UTC Reading prides itself on its employer engagement and careers provision which enriches the school curriculum and ultimately helps to transform the lives of our young people. Our students are proud of the destinations they go onto after leaving UTC Reading, and this is thanks to the relationships and support from our industry partners. We aim to build upon existing and develop new collaboration opportunities as we enter our 10th year of UTC Reading. Please see below a summary of typical opportunities employer partners to engage with UTC Reading over the academic year. 

Curriculum talks and workshops

Delivered within timetabled lessons across the academic year, employer support in our subject areas is key to linking curriculum learning to the world of work. For students, this adds context to their learning and enables them to see real-world applications of their subjects; this could be a standalone talk or a series of workshops over time. We have a whole school curriculum plan and would be able to advise where your talk or workshop may fit best. Our subject areas are Engineering, Computing, Computer Science, Maths, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, English, Product Design, Architecture, Business, and could cater for Year 10, Year 11, Year 12, or Year 13 students. 

Employer project days

Typically run on four dates throughout the academic year, our employer project days provide a fantastic opportunity for students to work on real-life, world of work activities and develop those all-important employability skills such as teamwork, leadership, and communication. By collapsing the timetable for the day, our students get the opportunity to work on something totally different to the norm and outside of the curriculum, delving into an exciting STEM project, solving briefs, and developing solutions. Projects in the past have included designing a school of the future, addressing world sustainability issues such as food waste, and a project looking at the regeneration of unused power plants. These can be delivered to whole year groups, key stages, or the whole school.  

If you have a project idea you’d like to run, or simply be a volunteer on one of our days, please let us know! 

Careers Fairs

Our annual UTC Reading Careers Fair typically happens in October of each year, where we bring together all of our industry partners in a classic Careers Fair. With the aim of widening student knowledge and understanding of industries and sectors in the world of work, our Careers Fair enables our students to engage and network with a range of providers. Run on a rotation basis with an hour provided per year group, come along with your stand, banners and of course, freebies (!) to give students an insight into your universities, apprenticeship, courses, and employment opportunities. With up to 40 spaces available, this will provide exposure to all 500 students studying at UTC Reading. 

STUDENT MENTORING PROGRAMME

Specifically designed for our Year 11 students, we are seeking commitment from employer mentors for six mornings between October and March, to deliver small group mentoring sessions. With a programme written by the Sage Foundation in partnership with UTC Reading, mentors will be guided through the programme and will contribute to raising aspirations for our Year 11 students. Mentors & students will be matched based on industry sectors to get maximum impact, working through a series of sessions such as student career aspirations, presentation skills and goal setting. At the end of the programme, students will have an excellent CV and an action plan prepared to help them to reach their next steps.  

LUNCHTIME CAREER STANDS

These are perfect slots if you would like to come in and speak to our students, raising awareness of your company and opportunities, and help to increase our student aspirations. Hugely popular in 2021 – 2022, these slots were often utilised by apprenticeship providers or employers, advertising their openings and opportunities to our students. Our lunchtime careers stands are available every Tuesday lunchtime from 13:20pm – 14:00pm (set up from 13:00pm), throughout November to March. Set up in our reception foyer, we ask employers to bring marketing material such as banners, tablecloths, leaflets, and handouts to grab the attention of our students. Open to all of our students during their lunch break, please get in touch if you’d like to book a slot. 

EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS SUPPORT

Throughout the academic year we run a number of workshops to support students prepare for the world of work and develop their employability skills. We are seeking employers to support mock interviews, cv and cover letter workshops, personal statement clinics, apprenticeship application workshops, LinkedIn workshops, mock assessment centres, psychometric testing insights and digital literacy skills such as email writing. These are often delivered in a variety of ways and can take shape via a one-hour workshop, or a whole day rotation of workshops. Please get in touch if you have employability skills resources that could be deployed to support these areas. 

EXPERIENCES OF THE WORKPLACE

This can be catered for in a number of different ways, whether it be a traditional work experience placement for a few students, work shadowing days for individuals or a visit to your institution for a group of 60 students. We know that after the last two years, face to face experiences have the most impact and we would love to give all of our students at least one experience of the workplace per key stage. If you can cater for any of the above, we’d love to hear from you and set this up for our students. 

National Celebration Weeks

We will also be celebrating a number of national weeks across the academic year, and we would love to mark these occasions with employer guest speakers and visitors. 

  • National Coding Week: W/C 19th September  
  • Tomorrows Engineering Week: W/C 7th November  
  • Maths Week England: W/C 14th November  
  • National Apprenticeship Week: W/C 6th February National Careers Week: W/C 6th March 
  • British Science Week: W/C 13th March 

If you would like to run a specific talk to some or all of our students during these weeks, we will be running a comprehensive Careers and Futures programme. 

Can you help us transform lives through learning? 

For more information or to register your interest, please contact stephanie.mitchell@utcreading.org.uk 

APPLY FOR

Year 10

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Year 12

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