Careers festival with former Crimewatch host aims to ensure students don’t have nightmares about their future careers

Suffolk New College is hoping a careers festival will help students not to have nightmares about their future thanks to a talk by the former host of the BBC TV show Crimewatch.

The presenter, Nick Ross, was one of many speakers who is took part in five days of employment support for learners who study at the four campuses of an educational establishment that recently received a ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ elements Ofsted grade.

Mr Ross dialled in for a virtual talk thanks to a link up with an organisation called Speakers for Schools.

Other highlights of the five day fest included a speed networking event, leadership guidance and an all-day focus on information technology careers.

Alongside the careers festival, other departments were involved in creating events based around employability. This saw sports students have a session with a football referee, health learners went to the Science Museum in London, those on catering and hospitality courses had a variety of cookery sessions from local bars and restaurants, ESOL learners had a talk with Dame Lin Homer and the RAF, the University of Essex, ESNEFT, Ginger Pickle, Healthcare Homes, Inspire Suffolk, MAD-HR Ltd, Magnus Group and Vertas were among a host of businesses to back this event.

Kayleigh Norris is the head of careers and adult personal development at the college and organiser of the festival. She said: “Thousands of students are getting the chance to chat to hundreds of businesses in what is potentially one of the biggest careers events to take place in the county. The idea behind this is to help our students realise that the world of work isn’t a scary place, all your career aspirations are achievable and we also wanted to get the message across that Suffolk is a great place to start and build a career – there are some amazing opportunities here. We also hope to have some job offers for students at the end of this – thanks to everyone who got involved and supported us.”

Tony Southgate the founder of Ginger Pickle, a digital marketing company based in Norwich said: “I was 30 before I realised what I wanted to do – so my message was that when you finish education, you don’t have to have it all figured out.     

“It may take time to find your passion, and when you do, you will know that this is the thing that you want to pursue.”            

In terms of why he got involved, Tony added: “It’s beneficial for me time to get my brand in front of people who may come and work with me in the future.”

Victoria Smith from MAD-HR Ltd, said: “I talked to them (the students) about leadership and explained that any one of them can be a leader. It’s always a pleasure to be involved in events like this and it’s nice to be able to come out and represent our business in the community.”

Leo Buckmaster is on a level two performing arts qualification at Suffolk New College. Leo took part in the speed networking sessions and said: “Networking is a really important part of being an actor so the skills I gained today will definitely help me in the future.”