May 8, 2019

Visit to The Cottesloe School

Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, visited The Cottesloe School, Wing, last week to see first-hand what excellent careers education really looks like.

The visit was an opportunity for The Cottesloe School to showcase the fantastic work they are doing on careers education for their pupils and how The Careers & Enterprise Company, in partnership with Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (BTVLEP), is supporting this.

John Bercow visited the school last Friday for a round table discussion, hosted by The Cottesloe School headteacher, Simon Jones, which included BTVLEP’ Under 19 Skills Manager and Careers Hub Lead, Marina Jackson, BTVLEP Enterprise Coordinator, Ruth Deraed and John Yarham, Deputy CEO from The Careers & Enterprise Company. The group were also joined by the school’ two senior business volunteer ‘Enterprise Advisers’, Dave Oxley and Jo Cowdrey from McAfee. Following the discussion John Bercow took part in a Careers Q&A where he answered a range of questions on his own career journey and told pupils from years 7-13 about what a career in politics is like.

John Yarman, Deputy CEO at The Careers & Enterprise Company said: “It’ great to have this opportunity to bring John Bercow MP to The Cottesloe School, which is making great progress in delivering careers education. We’re delighted that through The BTVLEP Careers Hub we’ve been able to support a number of local schools to develop their careers provision significantly over the last year. It’ so important that young people get the support they need to be better prepared for the world of work.”

Marina Jackson, Under 19 Skills Manager and Careers Hub Lead, said: “This was a great opportunity to showcase to John Bercow the work of the Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership Careers Hub and the progress that The Cottesloe School have made in delivering a world class careers education to their students. Students benefited from John Bercow’ message about resilience, hard work and determination, whatever path they might chose to follow.”

The Buckinghamshire Skills Hub is making excellent progress across the county, working together to improve careers awareness and skills development in all our secondary schools as part of The Careers & Enterprise Company’ national programme.

BTVLEP’ Skills Hub and its Enterprise Adviser Network (part of The Careers & Enterprise Company’ national network) supported 70,000 employer-student encounters in Bucks in 2017/18. Home to one of 20 pilot Careers Hubs in England, as part of The Careers & Enterprise Company programme, Bucks

Skills Hub are connecting schools and businesses with ‘offers’ and ‘asks’ via www.oppsinbucks.org and organising skills competitions in schools with employers including Bosch, East-West Rail and the National Film & Television School, and work place visits to British Standards Institution and Emerson.

Photo: John Bercow MP visited The Cottesloe School to see first-hand what excellent careers education really looks like. 

John Bercow MP visits The Cottesloe School, Wing