Careers

Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance

Welcome to the Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance (CEIAG) at Cowley International College.

The designated CEIAG Lead at Cowley: Mr Mercure. Telephone the main reception on 01744 678 030 or email: colin.mercure*at*cowleysthelens.org.uk.

The CEIAG programme is planned, monitored and evaluated by the Assistant Principal (Curriculum Developer), Mr Mercure, the Work Related Learning Mentor, Mr Mason, and Mr Harper, Careers Administration.

Within the links below, you will find information across CEIAG providing a useful resource for both students of Cowley and their parents/carers.

CEIAG Programme

Please find below details of what CEIAG students can be expected to go through in each year group.

KS3 & KS4

KS5

Cowley International College is committed to providing a planned programme of careers education, information, advice and guidance for all students in Years 7-13, in partnership with a provider of independent and impartial advice (Career Connect).

The careers programme is designed to meet the needs of students at Cowley International College. It follows the Gatsby Benchmarks and is differentiated and personalised to ensure progression through activities that are appropriate to students’ stages of career learning, planning and development.

Every Friday, we produce a Careers newsletter with details of upcoming events that students can get involved with. It is sent out to students via email and Unifrog and they are also available here.

17th March 2023

10th March 2023

3rd March 2023

10th February 2023

27th January 2023

20th January 2023

13th January 2023

6th January 2023

Useful links:

How to craft a stellar CV

How to write an outstanding cover letter

12 days of Winter Work Skills

How to format a CV

1. Use a tried-and-tested format.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Yes, you might just design the best thing ever given enough time in Microsoft Word. This time, however, should be spent crafting the content of your CV, and finding job offers that get you excited.

2. Don’t get fancy.

Unless you are applying to a super-creative field, stick to what we know works. Adding pictures, graphics and funky designs can do two things: confuse the Applicant Tracking Software (it scans for keywords), and annoy the recruiter. Or worse—both.

3. Try to keep to one page. 

Do you have less than a decade of relevant experience? Then you should probably stick to one page. Do you have more experience, or a lot of projects and accomplishments? You might need a two-pager.

4. Divide your CV into clear sections.

Make section headings slightly larger than the rest of the contents. Use bold or underline for higher readability.

5. Use professional fonts.

Pick a good font for a CV and stick to it on the whole document. Safe choices include Calibri and Arial.

6. Add enough white space.

Set one-inch margins on all sides and use 1.0 or 1.15 line spacing. Add a blank line before and after each heading.

7. Save your CV in PDF format.

What format should a CV be in? PDF, unless they ask for a different file format. Check the job ad. Because of Applicant Tracking Systems, some companies like to ask for .doc CVs. Otherwise, save as .PDF. It puts your document somewhere halfway between a picture and a text document — which protects the formatting on all devices.

Job vs career

You’re probably surrounded by parents, teachers and careers advisors, all telling you that it’s time to think about your career. But what does this mean, and why is it about more than just getting a job? Find out why it’s important to start thinking about.

What are soft skills and why are they important?

Soft skills is a term often used by careers advisors and employers to describe the kind of essential personal skills and social capabilities people need to be able to do most jobs. Find out about some of the key skills that will help you in the future.

How to… Career guides

There is a whole host of careers you may be interested in learning more about. Below, we have collated some interesting and useful ‘how to’ articles which explain how you can involved with that particular career area.

Students can request a 30-minute appointment with our independent Careers Advisors at any time during their time at Cowley.

To do so, please click here to email the Careers team.

Career of the Week

Every week, around school we promote a selected career/job on the video screens, in team time and online. You can find the Career of the Week presentation and information about the selected careers in the document (right).

Click the image to view the Careers of the Week for 2022-23