Employers

We welcome contact with employers as part of our Careers programme and aim for regular employer encounters for all year groups. These are particularly important during Year 8 and Year 11 when students are selecting options for the future, and need to gather information and advice about various job roles to facilitate sensible choices. 

WEEKLY EMPLOYER TALKS - MONDAYS 1135-1235

In 2025/26 we will have one speaker per week in the school, and invite students interested in that career to attend.  

If your company could offer a one-hour presentation/workshop about careers in a specific field, we would love to hear from you.

The 2026/27 dates are not yet confirmed, but please sign up to register your interest: go.dhsb.org/careerousel

EMPLOYER CHALLENGES - NOVEMBER 2026

We aim for all our Year 9 students to take part in a virtual work experience project during our Curriculum Challenge Day in November each year. Part of this would be working with a specific local company, where they will have a tour, meet some employees and be set a challenge connected with the particular industry. This challenge will then be fulfilled on another day back in school, and finally we will invite the employer to come into school and judge the outcomes.   If you could like to take part in our Employer Challenges, please contact us: careers@dhsb.org

NATIONAL CAREERS WEEK - MARCH 2026

Another big event during the year takes place during National Career Week in March, when we ask a wide variety of speakers to come and talk to mixed groups of Year 10 and 11 students, who have been given the opportunity to select their chosen area. If you'd like the be involved, please contact us: careers@dhsb.org

MOCK INTERVIEWS FOR YEAR 10/11/12/13 - ONGOING

We organise mock interviews for Year 10/11/12/13 students to allow them the opportunity to practise their techniques ahead of real-life interviews.  This might be in-person, online or over the telephone.  If you could offer students this opportunity, we'd love to hear from you.  If you'd like the be involved, please contact us: careers@dhsb.org

WORK EXPERIENCE - JUNE 2026 & NOVEMBER 2026

Hosting a placement is great for employers because it provides an opportunity to ‘give back’ and support a young person, it might find the organisation a great future employee, and it allows existing employees to have experience managing people. 

We use Unifrog to coordinate our work experience placements, and employers with 5+ employees will need to upload a valid Employers' Liability Insurance certificate, a risk assessment document, and a Health & Safety policy document.

Advice for employers on how to run a successful work experience placement can be found here.

If you could offer placements for one, or more students for the 5 days November 23-27, 2026 - please complete this form: go.dhsb.org/registerforwex

KS3 WORK EXPERIENCE ACTIVITIES 2026/2027

We're looking for a few businesses that would be interested in an extended project as part of our Digital Enterprise course in Year 7 and Year 8.  The plan would be that the employer delivers a short 'launch' assembly in person at DHSB, set the students a real-world problem to solve in teams, which they will work on in class for 6 weeks, then return to DHSB to judge the best presentations in a Dragon's Den style assembly.  This is a new plan to help us meet the new requirement for KS3 Work Experience activities.   If you'd like the be involved: go.dhsb.org/wexa

UPCOMING WORK EXPERIENCE DATES

• Year 10 Work Experience can take place June 22 - June 26, 2026; November 23 - November 27, 2026;  June 21 - June 25, 2027

• Year 11 Work Experience can take June 26 onwards for Year 11s after GCSEs (last contingency date for GCSEs is June 25, 2027)

• Year 12/13 Work Experience can take place at any time, with an approved leave of absence

If you would like to be involved in any of the above activities, or have any other opportunities in mind, please contact Paul Scott in the first instance careers@dhsb.org

We are also happy to advertise any apprenticeship vacancies you may wish to fill to either Year 11 or Year 13 students on our dedicated Google Classroom and parental mailing list.