Last Friday, a group of our Year 12 pupils visited JCB World Headquarters in Rocester to learn more about degree apprenticeships, leadership and how businesses are built. The event was the first of what will hopefully be many collaborative events between the Sixth Forms in the John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust.

As part of the day, our pupils had a tour of the production lines at the main factory and learned about the JCB story. Pupils also attended workshops which focussed on CV building, developing leadership skills and mock assessment exercises.

JCB is a hugely successful global company and one that Staffordshire is rightly proud of – our pupils were amazed by the scale of the operation and the opportunities available to them at Post-18 level. Having visited the UCAS conference earlier in the week to find out about University study, there are a wealth of other options available for our pupils to progress to once they leave us in Year 13 and this is all part of our commitment to help them to have as much guidance as possible to inform their next steps.

Mr J Cain, Deputy headteacher, said: ‘The team at JCB did an incredible job in putting together an interesting and engaging package for our pupils and we are very grateful to them. It was fantastic to see our pupils working with young people from other schools in our multi-academy trust, as well as seeing them engage with the young professionals who are building their own careers at JCB – it was especially pleasing to see one of our former pupils, Sophie Griffin, leading part of the presentation as part of the second Year of her degree apprenticeship at JCB’.

Whilst the world of degree apprenticeships is becoming incredibly competitive, we are hopeful that this opportunity, along with others, will stand our pupils in good stead as they aim for the very best progression routes upon leaving us.