Careers Education Information, Advice & Guidance
Our Vision
To support and engage every student to understand and develop their own future pathways, to raise and achieve their aspirations in an ever-changing and increasingly competitive world, grounded in the foundations of hope, endurance, forgiveness and trust.
Our commitment to careers provision extends beyond the legal minimum entitlement for students and is underpinned by the Gatsby framework with a commitment to meeting all eight benchmarks.
The intended outcomes of the careers programme include, but are not limited to:
- Students will undertake various work related experiences
- Students will reflect upon and refine their aspirations
- Students will increase their knowledge of education, training, and career opportunities
Careers Lead – Mr Dave Fox
david.fox@bfa.bdat-academies.org | 01274 302400 (ext 508)
Full details of our careers curriculum can be downloaded here
National Careers Week 2025
Monday 3rd to Saturday 8th March 2024
Resources for Students
Prospects – Careers information and guidance – use this to find out more about different careers and what qualifications you would need to climb your mountain. You can find all of the ‘Careers of the Week’ and ‘Careers Spotlights’ you will see in lessons here too.
Future Goals – this website uses Labour Market information, as well as employers and employees from local businesses to give an insight to employment opportunities within different sectors, including how the subjects you study link with future career options.
Amazing Apprenticeships – Apprenticeships explained – what are you looking for?
National Apprenticeship Service – search for apprenticeship vacancies or register for alerts and to apply.
BBC Bitesize – where could your favourite subject take you?
National Careers Service – a range of flexible contact channels – phone, email, webchat and SMS – providing information, advice and guidance relating to decisions on learning, training and work.
UCAS – online HE application system, information and guidance.
Success at School – explore Careers, employers, jobs, courses and advice.
Careermap – a magazine connecting students and their parents with helpful information about careers and qualifications, employability skills and CV writing.
Courses Online – guides covering what a role entails, the required qualifications, potential earnings etc.
Unifrog Sign-in – use this link to take you to the Unifrog log in page. You will need your school email address and your password.
Unifrog Password Reset – use this link if you have forgotten your password to Unifrog and need to reset it.
In school support
Our Careers Adviser is Angela Brackley, her email address is angela.brackley@bfa.bdat-academies.org
Telephone: 01274 302400 (ext 518)
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Our Careers Leader is Dave Fox, his email address is david.fox@bfa.bdat-academies.org
Telephone: 01274 302400 (ext 508)
Careers trips & visits we've enjoyed
Y10 Careers in Midwifery – Best 1001 Days
BFA Y10 Health and Social Care students visited Bradford Royal Infirmary. We met with Midwives who talked about their careers and job roles delivering babies and supporting new mums. We learnt about their routes into midwifery and where a career in the NHS can take you.
The best 1001 days programme seeks to address some key issues in the Bradford region including smoking rates in pregnancy, low birthrate babies and breastfeeding rates.
Our students participated in interactive workshops including monitoring heart rates, delivery of a baby (prosthetic model of course!), breast feeding / bottle feeding and child/adult CPR.
Our students were thoroughly engaged, and some are now sure this is the career for them!
Y10 Queens College Cambridge University Trip
High attaining Year 10 students had a terrific opportunity to visit and tour Queens College Cambridge University for a day. Our students had a chance to quiz student ambassadors about their experiences of student life at the University. We learnt what subjects they studied at A’ Level and the top grades they needed to achieve to gain entry to the University. Most students achieve A* A* A to secure their place at Cambridge. However, they do have foundation courses where B,B B can secure entry to the University too!
We had lunch in the ‘Buttery’ and a tour of the campus and its historic buildings including the famous Kings College Chapel. In the afternoon our students participated in University style Science lectures.
Did you know..
Kings College Cambridge Chapel is the oldest surviving building within the College site and perhaps the most iconic building in Cambridge. Work on this Chapel only started five years after King’s College was founded by Henry VI in 1441!
Did you also know..
The university of Cambridge has 32 individual ‘Colleges’ or campuses where students live and have access to all the facilities such as dining room/ restaurant known as ‘Buttery’, library, gym and lots of other communal facilities including boating equipment!
Careers Fair, July 2024
It was a great day where every student in school had access to a range of Colleges, Universities, Apprenticeship providers/trainers and Employers. Our students asked great questions and learnt lots about job opportunities, courses and careers available.
Every student at BFA had a great opportunity to explore for their future career and many stall holders commented on how polite and interested our students were!
Y7 & Y8 trip to York St John University
The trip was hosted by the Talent Foundry and supported by Dell Technologies at York St John University. Our students worked together in teams, on a problem solving challenge to address a global issue!
Teams came up with some brilliant solutions for problems including pollution of our seas, homelessness and substance abuse. The winners below fulfilled the brief the best and demonstrated great team work skills!
We also had an opportunity to hear from student ambassadors and a representative from Dell Technologies together with a tour of the York St John University.
This was a fantastic opportunity to increase the professional aspirations of our students and experience University life for a day.
Thank you to The Talent Foundry & Dell Technologies
The 3 day IU careers in focus program allowed our Year 9 students to develop their enterprise skills through planning and a pitching a product – Dragons Den style.
Students also had the opportunity to develop their ideas with employees from First Direct and Mills & Reeves Law firm.
The final day was trip day to the SharkNinja offices where the teams took on an exciting marketing challenge to new launch Ninja products supported with the expertise of Ninja marketing staff.
Overall a fabulous 3 days thanks to support from Into University, First Direct, Mills & Reeves and Shark Ninja.
BFA students had a fantastic opportunity today to learn labour market information for potential creative careers in the screen industry hosted by Channel4 schools. Year 10 had a fun assembly ‘Big careers on the small screen’ to connect what they see on screen and the range of different jobs in the creative sector that enable channel 4 to screen its programmes on TV and digital formats.
Year 9 & 10 Performing Arts students did the ‘Have a go’ challenge where students worked together to create a TV advert for a documentary to develop understanding and demonstration of skills for the creative sector.
Finally, we had an interactive Q&A session including inspiring talks from a panel of representatives from Channel 4. They shared their own careers journeys with our students, answered questions about their jobs at Channel 4 and shared invaluable careers advice to our students.
Year 8 students had a fantastic day at the University of Leeds exploring how numeracy skills are used in different careers. We had inspiring talks from representatives from KPMG, Morrisons, the Met Office and University of Leeds.
They also had a tour of the university campus and had a great hands-on interactive session with maths based activities and games supported from a team from Maths City who are behind the UK’s first National Mathematics Discovery centre in Leeds.
Year 8 Into University – Buddy Program / visit to the University of Bradford
Our Year 8 cohort of the Into University program have had a workshop in school to deepen their understanding of what University life is all about. This was followed up with a visit to the University of Bradford campus where we learnt about the different engineering courses they offer, met students, had a campus tour, and participated in an engineering challenge with Lego of course!
Did you know…. ?
The University of Bradford has 6 different engineering degree courses:
- Chemical
- Mechanical
- Aeronautical
- Industrial Design
- Civil engineering
- Electrical
Here are some pictures of our potential engineers of the future:
Year 10 Health and Social Care students visited Bradford Royal Infirmary Teaching Hospital today to learn about and explore the range of careers in the NHS and healthcare.
Students met clinical and non-clinical staff to find about their job roles as well as hearing from the Chief Executive Officer Mel Pickup.
Our students have been invited to apply for scholarships in the Generation Medic Project which includes access to a virtual Healthcare Academy that covers insights into a career in healthcare, E-courses and articles to encourage a growth mindset and build confidence in career planning. Student were buzzing about the trip and the cupcakes!
Year 8 Trip to Leeds Trinity University
The trip to Leeds Trinity University was organised with our Into University Partners. Students had a fantastic opportunity to:
Meet some students and quiz them about their experiences of university life
- Have a campus tour to see all the great facilities
- See student accommodation on campus
- Take part in a university lecture
We had a great day and pupils now understand more about University life and tell me they have been inspired to consider university in the future!
Our Year 9 IntoUniversity group have had their final workshop this year learning about University life including different types of courses available and skills required.
Students considered their oracy skills, developed understanding of key words associated with University such as ‘ Halls of Residence’, ‘lecture’ and ‘Gap year’. The group worked on their personal statements which will be important for their CV and future college and university applications.
They also learnt about student loans and how, once a graduate job is secured, on average students repay only £30 a month.
But did you know….
A degree from a UK university increases a person’s net earnings by £100K or more over their lifetime!
Into University is based at the TFD centre, Holme Wood and also offers Secondary Academic support at their centre (Year 7 -13) Monday and Thursday 4pm – 5.30pm
Please email bradfordeast@intouniversity.org if you would like to find out more.
Some of our able and talented Year 10 students visited the New College Bradford Festival of Progression in association with the University of Hull.
The event hosted Adam Corbally, an internationally renowned motivational speaker and finalist on the BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’.
There were also an exciting array of activities including:
- Bird’s of Prey interactive presentation
- Celebrating the Arts – developing a visual art based on birds of Prey with Claire from ‘Don’t burst my bubble’
- STEMM – Drone coding workshop
- Martial Arts – Self defence with JT Martial Arts
- Circus skills with FlameOz used as inspiration to work on Poetry with famous published poet Ash Dickinson.
- Mini-Olympics with Bradford Bull’s Captain Michael Lawrence & Youth Coach Anthony Gallagher from Barnsley FC
New College Bradford is one of our key Year 11 student destinations for Level 3 A’ level and BTEC courses, which enable progression to University and Higher level Apprenticeships.
20% of our Year 11 leaver students successfully progressed to New College in 2022 and many of our students from earlier cohorts have now graduated from NCB to a range of Universities.
Encounters with Employers during Y10 Work Experience Week
Trip to Yorkshire Water, March 2024
Trip to Bradford Royal Infirmary, March 2024
Positive feedback from our Careers Fair, 6th July 2023
Thursday 6th July saw over 750 students across all year groups at Bradford Forster Academy meeting with over 30 employers and Sixth Form representatives for our annual Careers Fair. The day was a great success! We have over 30 Businesses/ Employers/ Colleges and Universities visit us last Thursday; all students were invited to the event and were able to talk to them about their future options and goals. There were some excellent questions asked by students and the delegates commented on how well behaved, sensible and insightful the students were.
This is what one delegate had to say ‘It was great! The students, the lunch, the buzz! It’s the only one (careers fair) I try and not miss each year! Love love love it all!’
Providers who attended praised our students for their good manners, enthusiasm, great questions and general fantastic engagement throughout the entire day of the careers fair. Thank you to everyone who visited us!
Into University
“There was a real energetic buzz in the air, all students seemed to be enjoying it and many seemed to be genuinely inspired about their future goals and aspirations”
Halifax Trinity 6th Form
“The students asked insightful, inquisitive questions and the food was the best that I have ever received at a careers fair”
Spire Barristers
“I wanted the students to know that it was a pleasure to meet them all at the Fayre. The students who attended Spire Barristers stall were all engaging, articulate, charismatic, fun students. They had good energy with lively banter and humour, especially those who tried on the wigs and gowns. It is these personal qualities that would make each and every one a successful lawyer, as you have to be able to connect with people in this job.
Thank you for inviting Spire Barristers to the Fayre, it was a pleasure to meet everyone and hopefully the students will believe they too can have a career in law. The Law is for everyone!”
Targeted support for vulnerable and disadvantaged students
The academy’s careers leader works closely using data to identify students who need targeted support or who are at risk of not participating in further studies after year 11, becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training). Targeted students receive additional support on career options, pathways (Apprenticeships, College etc.) and application help. Students in alternative provision also receive targeted support from the career’s leader and additional support with interviews etc.
SEND students support
SEND students are supported to develop the skills and experience, and achieve the qualifications they need, to succeed in their careers. The academy seeks to understand the interests, strengths and motivations of students and use this to support students onto a pathway that supports their development and progression.
Independent and impartial advice for young people with SEN and disabilities includes all the education, training and employment opportunities on offer, and signpost them onto study programmes that will support their transition into paid employment. This includes work skills, soft skills, work experience, traineeships, apprenticeships, and qualifications that will enable students to apply for higher education where appropriate.
Resources for parents
Apprenticeship Service – October Parent Pack
Advice for Parents when helping Young People plan their future
Parents’ Guide to Careers in Engineering
Student Finance – What Parents need to know
Higher Education Progession Partnership (HEPP) – resources for Student and Parents
Amazing Apprenticeships – Parents’ Pack
What are the options available after Year 11?
- Stay in full-time education (e.g. school or college)
- Take up work-based learning (e.g. an apprenticeship or traineeship)
- Take up full-time work with additional part-time learning (at least 280 planned hours of education a year) which will result in an accredited qualification
- Combine self-employment with part-time learning, leading to an accredited qualification
- Volunteer (for 20+ hours) with the addition of part-time learning, leading to an accredited qualification
How to support your child?
- Encourage them to find out as much as they can about their options,
- Discuss with your child the options information they receive
- Help them to identify their interests and abilities
- Check the dates of options events and open evenings ( we will share this information in school also)
- Encourage them to consider the consequences of their choices
- Support their decision
- Encourage them to make a backup plan
Resources for Labour Market Information and Career Choices
Future Goals – this website uses Labour Market information, as well as employers and employees from local businesses to give an insight to employment opportunities within different sectors in the Leeds City Region
iCould – Real stories to inspire your career
Nomis – official Labour Market Statistics
Office for National Statistics – Statistics about employment rates in a national picture.
Prospects – Careers information and guidance
Informed Choices – a Russell Group Guide to making decisions about post-16 education
A Level Explorer – see where your A level choices will take you
Higher Apprenticeships – infographic
Which? University – search by university, by predicted grades and by category or use the A-level explorer tool.
Higher Education access for disabled and disadvantaged students
Opportunities for access
We are always looking to invite employers from different sectors to come in and work with our young people. If you are interested in hearing more about the opportunities that you could get involved in, please get in touch with us.
Telephone: 01274 302400
Email: info@bfa.bdat-academies.org
Please find our Provider Access Policy here
Careers Education Review
The CEIAG programme will be reviewed on an annual basis (September) by the career leader and adapted where necessary. This will take in to account any feedback from staff, students or external providers linked to the previous year’s activities.
