Post 18 Pathways & Careers Guidance
Unifrog
At St John’s we use Unifrog to support our students with their journey to the next stage of their lives, be that university, an apprenticeship or the workplace. Unifrog provides a full suite of tools that students can use to research career/university pathways, find the courses best suited to them, explore apprenticeship vacancies, and engage in a wide range of super-curricular activities to strengthen their applications and portfolios.
Work Experience
This is an essential part of year 12, usually in the final week of June, and is a great opportunity to experience the world of work either within a company linked to your preferred career path or somewhere you can learn transferrable skills.
Work experience is exceptionally competitive, and we strongly recommend you begin searching for opportunities from the start of year 12.
All work experience placements need to be logged on your Unifrog account so that we can track the various legal bits of paperwork.
Anyone interested in medical or veterinary pathways must complete relevant work experience before applying to university.
We also encourage students to complete virtual work experience placements during the course of the year – you can find these via Unifrog or on Springpod here:
Virtual work experience (springpod.com)
UCAS
Every year approximately 85% of our students apply for a university position, which needs to be via the UCAS portal. For those students unsure about whether they wish to find an apprenticeship or apply to university we recommend applying to university anyway – you can always cancel your applications, but if you don’t apply you’ll miss out on the opportunities at university.
There are a host of useful guides for completing the application forms as well as recommendations for your personal statements here:
Applying to University - learn about everything involved (ucas.com)
There is also a helpful page for parents/guardians with a range of helpful topics, including the application process, student finance, accommodation here:
Students are able to work with a member of the KS5 team on their UCAS application on a Friday afternoon if they wish.
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships come in a range of different levels, with levels 6 and 7 including full university degrees as part of the course.
Students can use the Unifrog platform to search for vacancies and opportunities or research opportunities on company websites directly, as well as utilise the government apprenticeship page here:
Become an apprentice: Apply for an apprenticeship - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Just like with universities, we recommend you apply for multiple opportunities and do so early (from the start of year 13)
General Careers Support
All members of our sixth form are welcome to discuss their career pathways with the school careers team at any point – you are welcome to seek out Mrs Murray or Mrs Rooke, or drop an email through to stjcareers@stj.kent.sch.uk.