Carnoustie High School Business Breakfast
Carnoustie High School Business Breakfast
After a 2-year hiatus, Carnoustie High School sought to bring back their S6 business breakfast at the end of the 2021/22 school term. The plan was to invite professionals from businesses in the Tayside area, which represented as many different industries as possible, to speak to their S6 pupils about potential careers.
The event was also to support the Career Education Standard to allow for better connectivity and cooperation between education and the world or work. It was also hoped that by running this event young people would understand the expectations of employers and feel that they can make an achievable contribution to companies.
Around 88 pupils attended the business breakfast and had an enjoyable experience networking with businesses. 40 different guests from the world of work attended representing a variety of industries. The students had the opportunity to sit with the professionals and discuss potential careers, pathways and develop networking skills. As the event progressed, they had the chance to move around the tables and speak to all guests in attendance. This opportunity allowed them to identify and access support networks that may help them progress towards a positive destination beyond school.
Many of the businesses who attended provided young people with careers advice and their contact emails, to help them develop a professional network. This assisted the pupils in focussing on their plans for when they leave school. Pupils were able to learn first-hand about the world of work, job possibilities and learn more about the skills they will need for the future.
Through the event, employers also informed pupils first-hand about the relevance, growth and attractiveness of industry sectors, employment opportunities and progressive career options from the sectors they represented. They also assisted with the pupils’ readiness for transitioning into the world of work by informing them about recruitment procedures.
“I attended the S6 business breakfast at Carnoustie Hotel which brought employers and young people to one place to talk about the what’s next in their journey. The breakfast was an inspiration to attend, each table had one or two employers that were happy to share their personal and professional stories with the S6 Students, encouraging them to reach out and ask for help, with their career paths including asking for volunteering or work experience. There were nurses, doctors and pilots that attended, along with businesses such as Carnoustie Hotel, Angus Soft Fruits, Arbroath Football Club and Henderson Loggie. During the morning the students could move tables 3 times and get different perspectives from different people. This event truly had the young people at the heart of it and it was a joy to see how much they took from talking to different organisation.”
– Lisa Laidlaw – DYW Tay Cities Lead
Abertay 25 Plus with St Paul's RC Academy
Abertay 25 Plus with St Paul's RC Academy
Earlier this year, Abertay University partnered with St Paul’s RC Academy, to deliver the Abertay 25 plus project. The university celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019 and as part of the celebrations developed Abertay 25; a project that aimed to help the Dundee community explore its rich history through the University archives.
Abertay 25 plus is a legacy programme built on Abertay 25 – a skills development project that encourages school pupils to collectively research stories using archives, and present their findings in creative ways. The process is well suited to a cross-curricular setting across Arts, Humanities, and Technologies, as this project demonstrated.
Computing Studies teacher, Mr Christie, from St Paul’s Academy, worked with Abertay University to deliver this to a class taking the NPA Games Development course.
The group was made up of students between the ages of 15-18 years old with differing levels of ability. With the NPA Games Development course being largely vocational and practical, it was identified that the Abertay 25 plus project would be perfect to fit in with the curriculum and inspire the young people with theme ideas for the game they were asked to develop.
To begin with, Abertay University Archivist Ruaraidh Wishart and a postgraduate volunteer introduced the class to the story of Abertay’s first computer bought in 1966, the Elliott 4100, through various archive materials. The class were encouraged to ask questions about the documents they were given and carry out their own research to find answers.
As they found out more in their research, many in the class became interested in the story of the clerkess that operated the computer, and the technological and social challenges she faced at that time. She became a major character for their video games, alongside technological and environmental features of computing in the 1960s – the paper punch tape used to feed programmes into the computer; the massive size of it compared to the computers we have now; and the need to keep its surroundings clean in case the heat generated by the circuits set fire to dust in the environment.
As part of the video game development process, pupils were then asked to design their game, sound, and artwork inspired by their research. In the end, the students produced video games using a variety of design applications and various style genres.
Overall, the project was a huge success as pupils completed the project brief set out in their curriculum and they developed valuable skills for the future – team working, researching and creative thinking, as well as skills relevant for careers in computer games development and heritage.
“As a teacher, the project has been fascinating to take part in and has stimulated and inspired the students to produce some unique concepts which I don’t feel we would have seen if we didn’t have the outside stimulus of Ruaraidh and the team. We hope we can work with Ruaraidh and Abertay again soon.”
– Mr Christie , St Paul’s RC Academy Class Teacher
How you can get involved:
A case-study video giving more details of the project is available on the Abertay 25 Plus page. This also gives links to the original Abertay 25 project materials that can be used by any class or community group to run their own Abertay 25 project. It includes education packs with suggestions of stories to explore, but which can also be adapted to suit the needs of the group using them.
As well as the resources page, a couple of introductory training sessions are being offered to let teachers and community groups find out more about the resources and methodology.
Early booking on these sessions is advised as space on them will be limited to 15 people per session, and offered on a first-come first-served basis. Participants will be expected to have looked through the resources beforehand and be prepared to discuss them during the session.
Dates, Booking, and Contact
Sessions are scheduled for 15 and 23 September at 4.15pm. To book a place on –
15th Sept click here
23rd Sept click here
For more information, please contact archives@abertay.ac.uk
