Solent Partners’ Careers Hub supports regional schools and colleges with their career related activities

Young people can get involved with lots of exciting opportunities to help them get ‘career ready’, through support provided to Solent-based schools. These opportunities help to illustrate the skills needed for stimulating jobs including robotics, AI and gaming.

Solent Partners is the new, re-energised partnership bringing education, industry and public sector organisations together to improve prosperity in the Solent region and opportunities for the next generation.

The Solent Partners' Careers Hub does not only help Solent-based schools and colleges to give young people outstanding career-related opportunities, but to provide the local economy with a skilled workforce for the future. Solent Coding Day is a chance for your child or students to find out about a career as an ethical hacker, working in robotics or becoming a music producer, there’s career inspiration available right here.

Solent Coding Day – sign up for free

Free fun event aimed at inspiring young minds to discover computer programming and follow career pathways in future technology. Picture – supplied.

Schools can sign up their students from the ages of nine to 13 for the first free interactive workshop, where they will lead avatar Aqua on an exciting quest to build their own game. They will discover computer coding, and find out how it’s the future for many industries, including jobs like ethical hacking, robotics, AI and gaming, all delivered in a fun way thanks to the experts from Barclays Code Playground (Digital Eagles).

The event takes place on or around Friday 1 December and schools can find out more here.

Solent Coding Day is designed to fit in with the Key Stage 2/3 computing curriculum.

The Solent Careers Hub

Coding is a versatile skill that can open doors to a wide range of exciting jobs in the Solent. Picture – supplied.

The Solent Careers Hub, part of Solent Partners, supports Solent regional schools and colleges with their career related activities and strategies. Part of their work includes coordinating both current and retired business volunteers, known as Enterprise Advisers, who they match with schools or colleges across the region to develop and implement an effective careers strategy that brings industry insights into the heart of careers education.

Support for all

There is a huge array of work being done, with the aim of reaching out to every young person in the region. One example is a project with Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council, looking at how to support vulnerable young people who are at risk of disengaging with education, employment or training (known as NEET – not in education, employment or training).

The team convenes a series of conferences and workshops on this and other important education issues, including special educational needs provision - looking at emerging challenges and exploring good practice; engaging with education professionals, parents and carers, and supporting young people into post-16 learning. This includes working with schools and colleges to ensure education is accessible for all students - including non-neurotypical pupils and those with distinctive personalities and behaviours.

Solent Partners’ Careers Hub: Inspiring the next generation. Picture – supplied.

Tech businesses – get involved

The Solent Partners’ Careers Hub is seeking Tech Talk volunteers from local businesses to lead inspirational sessions in the classroom, where they will share their technical and digital expertise with young people, and inspire them with insights on how to get into the best tech-related careers.

Volunteers are being asked to give one or two hours over the year to inspire the next generation of tech experts in the Solent.