Careers

Beckfoot Careers Team

Sarah Wilson, our Careers Co-ordinator, works closely with our dedicated Careers team, to provide outstanding support to our students week in and week out. We are thrilled to announce that Sarah won the Secondary Educator of the Year award in 2024, in recognition of her exceptional efforts in guiding our students toward their future careers. This honor is truly well-deserved. Just last year, our Careers team was a runner-up in the national awards for pre-16 careers provision, narrowly missing out to the NHS. This placed us among the top schools in the country for careers education, and this recent award further highlights the incredible quality of our Careers team’s work. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a talented group supporting our students.

Our team have worked together to bring our careers programme up to date and to offer a wide range of activities, resources and help to students across each year group. They work to provide our students with the employability skills to achieve and thrive in their future, providing them with unbiased advice and individualised support so that they can make informed choices about their next steps after school. We are proud to have been awarded the Quality in Careers Standard.

Sarah Wilson

Careers Coordinator

I work with a great team of people organising everything from PSHCE concentrating on Careers, visits to colleges, universities and workplaces to live lessons teaching skills in CV writing, employability and recognising your qualities and skills.

We have welcomed back our annual Careers Convention, where over 40 employers, universities, colleges and training providers are in school to speak to students across all year groups. We have also invited volunteers across many sectors into school to take assemblies, run classroom sessions and do practice interview sessions with our students.I love the interaction that I have with students in school and continue to have an open-door policy so that students can access the team at any time. 

It’s an absolute joy to work with the Careers Team at Beckfoot. They are a fantastic team of people who work relentlessly all year round to support our students. They offer impartial careers information, advice and guidance to students and encourage students to consider their own future careers. 

The team delivers a wide variety of careers related events and encounters over the year. My favourite is interview practice but we are always on the lookout for new and exciting events and activities which help our students. So far this year we have delivered targeted sessions from Medical Mavericks focusing on NHS and STEM careers, ran small group Aim Higher events and small workshops on employability skills. We have also launched Unifrog as part of the PSHCE programme, I’ve loved seeing the wide variety of personalities we have across school. My role is to have the overview of the careers programme and to lead the team here at Beckfoot. Enjoy the website, it is full of quality advice, information and guidance and I hope you find this useful.

Holly Mclean

Careers Lead

Molly Kidd

Work Experience Coordinator

My role here at Beckfoot is to help students find suitable work experience placements that will give them a great insight into the world of work and hopefully a glimpse at possible future pathways and careers.

I am here to help students make decisions about the sorts of placements they want to do, and to help them secure these placements. It is vital that I build positive relationships with local businesses,  and to make sure there are a wide variety of options available for students in all sorts of industries and workplaces. By working together as a team with our amazing students and staff, I aim to find all our students a placement that they will enjoy and will be beneficial for all involved. As part of my role I allocate our students appointments with Liz Palmer, our Careers Adviser. This gives them the opportunity to have an in-depth chat about their future education and career options.

I have been a Qualified Careers Adviser (L6 Post Graduate Diploma in Careers Guidance) for 20+ Years and am employed by Skills House who deliver Careers Information, Advice & Guidance to people of all ages across the Bradford District. 

I offer independent and impartial practical support, information, advice and guidance on a range of options including careers, education (Further/Higher), work & training (including Apprenticeships) and volunteering opportunities. I support Beckfoot students with making the right decisions at the crucial times in their schooling eg GCSE choices, Post 16 & 18 Options.

Liz Palmer

Careers Advisor

At Beckfoot, we are committed to providing a Year 7 Up programme of careers and information guidance to allow students to think about, plan, reflect and refine their decision about their Post 16 and Post 18 options. As part of this, we aim to establish strong links with the wider community including industry experts, businesses, parents, Beckfoot alumni and charities in order to prepare students for life beyond Beckfoot. Our Careers Education Programme is designed to meet the needs of all learners at Beckfoot, with personalised activities designed to ensure progression in their career learning and development, to strengthen their motivation, aspirations and attainment, and to excite them about their future.

Beckfoot recognises that it is a statutory and moral duty to provide careers education in Years 7-11 (1997 Education Act 2003 Regulations) and to give learners access to impartial careers information, education and guidance. We are committed to providing a planned programme of impartial careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) for all learners in years 7-11, in partnership with engaged providers, and to provide extra support to learners with additional needs. Beckfoot follows best practice guidance from the careers profession and from external bodies such as Ofsted. Beckfoot have embedded the eight Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance into our students learning experience throughout their time with us, click here to find out more.