Careers Advice

Further Information

Over 850 Year 11 pupils from six local High Schools attended this year’s Opportunities–GY Careers’ Fair held on October 22^nd 2009 at the King’s Centre in Gorleston. The Careers’ Fair, supported by Working Neighbourhoods Funding from Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the Great Yarmouth Local Strategic Partnership, is now well established as an essential annual event in the schools’ calendar.

Over forty local private and public sector organisations were on hand to guide and inform the students in making their all-important career choices. From the private sector these included high tech companies such as C-Mac Technology and Gardline Marine Sciences, with Bernard Matthews Foods Ltd representing the important local food-processing sector. Care UK, J. G Plummer Dental Surgeons and the Great Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust dealt with social care opportunities, and Eyre Electrical and KLM Engineering provided working insights into mechanical and electrical engineering.

Great Yarmouth College, East Norfolk Sixth Form College, City College Norwich and Easton College were on hand to provide a range of further education advice, complemented by the University of East Anglia, Aim Higher and OPITO (the oil and gas academy) looking at higher education opportunities.

Voluntary Norfolk, the YMCA and Seachange Arts provided information on their focussed training programmes, with representatives from the East Consortium and Great Yarmouth College showing how the new Diplomas and Apprenticeships fit into the picture. Underpinning all this a host of Connexions advisers were thick on the ground providing tailored careers’ advice, and Enterprise GY were close by for those interested in starting their own business. Great Yarmouth Marketing Initiative, and the Borough Council’s Economic Development Unit provided an overview of local industry and business expertise.

Information on opportunities in the public sector were well covered by Great Yarmouth Borough Council HR representatives, the Army, Navy and Air Force and Norfolk Fire Service, although the latter had to apologise for missing some of the Fair as they were needed elsewhere to support local colleagues in dealing with an incident in Lowestoft!

To support the event 1000 copies of a specially produced Opportunities-GY Career’s Toolkit were distributed to the students prompting them to think about their future careers, and giving them an overview of Great Yarmouth’s economy, local businesses and education and training opportunities. With the basic design brief provided by EAE (Norfolk) Ltd. the Borough Council’s Reprographics Department produced an eye-catching and highly informative information pack that was well received by teachers and students alike.

Log onto the Opportunities-GY website www.opportunities-gy.org.uk for further information and career’s advice.