CAREERS EVENTS / media

Parents Event with Richard Fawder of Boost Skills

How to develop your students' employability skills to give them the best chances for the future.

Richard of Boost Skills delivered a great session for parents of children in all year groups, explaining the essential skills our students will need to succeed and how we can foster these at home and in school.

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Careers Café Event - Four Unique Inspirations

On October 19th 2020, Oaks Park held an intriguing careers discussion for students to gain a better understanding of their futures, and what path they may wish to lead. Four special guests, from very varied backgrounds, industries and passions were there, including:

• Niyi Opaleye - Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge

• Peace Ani - MBA Graduate, Co-Founder of Child Prodigy and member of the Chartered Management Institute

• Arit Eminue - Multi-award-winning entrepreneur, career development and leadership coach

• Richard Odufisan - Manager in Consulting with Deloitte

What was it about?

During the talk, the visitors discussed various attributes to their jobs. For example, the best thing about their job, their biggest fears, the worst thing about their jobs, their biggest achievements, and a lot more. The main themes that encompassed the talk was happiness and challenge. Were they happy with their jobs? How did they overcome their struggles to get to where they are now? How did they push through failure to achieve their goals and dreams? Each speaker gave distinct responses.

A Couple Of Speakers

For instance, Peace Ani, an MBA (Master of Business Administration) graduate and the writer of ‘Brexit - The Benefit of Hindsight: King vs Rich Trade Off', conversed through her school life and the challenge that she was faced with: “What career do I want to pursue?”. I am sure that this is what many of us students are thinking about/ have thought of when it comes to their futures. Peace expressed her own solution to this ultimatum by asking: “What job would help me the most in the future?”. Currently, she works in the financial service (specifically asset management). However she struggles with a few challenges of her own, such as her confidence, something that we may relate to. As of now, she is improving her confidence skills through a part of her job where she discusses strategies to stakeholders in order to allow them to oversee different business functions.

Another guest speaker, Richard Odufisan, a Manager in Consulting with Deloitte, discussed his path to his chosen career and his struggles in school. During school, Richard was a talkative and lively individual. He was interested in acting and communication, rather than academic studies, which led to his struggles with school. After GCSEs, Richard felt somewhat discouraged. However, after finding/confirming a lot about his personality and interests through talks and websites similar to unifrog, he began to gain an interest in consulting, as it is “the balance between communication and acting”, as stated by Richard himself.

What did I learn?

Based on this inspiring talk, I have learnt that your past does not determine who you will be. Grades, traumas, stresses, decision difficulties… they are not the end to your journey to success and most importantly, happiness. Furthermore, I have learnt that no matter what your passion is, there will always be a job/career for you, as we may have jobs/careers in the future related to all/most of your personality and the things that give you joy.

Thanks for reading - Adnan Shah Year 12