Careers education is an ever important subject across all phases of education, and what better way of learning about career options in STEM than to talk to the people that do them and experience them for yourself?
This week, we caught up with our latest group of STEM Insight teachers working with a STEM employer or university department. The teachers each took part in a placement during the spring term, experiencing for themselves the wide range of careers and further study routes that link to their subject.
We have heard great things from teachers who have had an eye-opening experience at their chosen placement, but it doesn't end there. The placement is followed up by a package of bespoke face-to-face and online CPD. This additional support gives you the space to develop, grow and share your ideas. Listening this week to the teachers on the face-to-face CPD, their experiences so far have ignited new and creative ways of teaching and sharing careers knowledge with both students and colleagues.
STEM Insight is a package of CPD that starts with a one or two week placement in industry or university. With opportunities to visit a wide range of employers, from BP and Crossrail to the University of Cambridge, these placements provide you with a great chance to immerse yourself into the world of STEM careers and further study.
Every teacher brings something different to the CPD day and we guarantee that you will leave bursting with even more ideas, schemes and strategies to make STEM subjects and careers more engaging for your students
Teachers who have previously taken part in the STEM Insight scheme have now become designated points of contact between their department and school careers advisor. This means that opportunities for students to engage in science are shared more effectively - an approach that had been previously overlooked. This then throws up discussions about how to make this interdisciplinary between the STEM subjects and how it would be possible to create a network of careers support for students.
One teacher also talked about the work experience he organised at IBM for one of his students who was unsure as to whether they would like to continue with science. It turns out that after the work experience, the student was really enthusiastic and wanted to continue studying science at A level.
This face-to-face CPD gives teachers the chance to discuss what they want to do with their experience of the scheme when they get back to school: changes to enhance the curriculum, starting a STEM Club, staff presentations to disseminate what was learned, departmental meetings to review knowledge and careers advice, the possibilities are endless. All these things and more were discussed and this is just one of the fantastic things about the scheme; it puts you in a room with other enthusiastic teachers who want to make a difference to STEM in their school.
Every teacher brings something different to the CPD day and we guarantee that you will leave bursting with even more ideas, schemes and strategies to make STEM subjects and careers more engaging for your students. At the end of the day, we all want what is best for our students' futures. The STEM Insight scheme will enhance their experience of STEM in the classroom, and give them the knowledge about what they can do with it once they have left school.
Remember, STEM Insight is so much more than a placement, it is an experience that gives you the platform to take STEM subjects and careers to a new level in your school.