Drop Day – International Women's Day & Careers

To celebrate International Women’s Day, which coincided with our Drop Day, we invited some inspirational women to come and talk to some of our Year 7 and 8 students. We were joined by Holly from Merrill Lynch, Nazreen and Fatima from City University, and Pearl and Natasha from Construction Youth Trust.

They spoke to the students about their careers, university experiences, what it’s like to do an apprenticeship and their individual backgrounds, including the challenges that they had to overcome in order to be where they are today. Nazreen and Fatima told the students about what they needed to do in order to get into university and the different courses that they are studying.  They also told them about the different societies and experiences that they have had so far at City.  Holly’s message to the students was that they should do what they love and pursue a career in the subject area that most relates to their interests and passions, while Natasha shared her story of how she overcame failure when she didn’t pass any of her GCSEs, but is now completing a Higher Level apprenticeship in construction management that will enable her to earn in excess of £100,000 a year once she has qualified.

The students said that they learnt more about the finance and construction industries, and that they realise that much more independent work is required at university.

We finished the session by discussing some inspirational females like Sophia Duleep Singh, Malala Yousafzai, Emmeline Pankhurst and Rosa Parks and the impact that they have had, and talked about what International Women’s Day meant to the students.  Ms Eldrid and Ms Rahman were really impressed with the questions that the students asked our guests, their thoughtful participation in discussion, and their enthusiasm for the activities.

Ms Eldrid

Learning from Every Situation – The Bow Way