Careers & Employability

Our school’s careers and employability team are here to support you with your decisions, career options and experiences to give you the best chance for a successful transition from school.

Erin Bartley MA PgDip QCG MSc

Erin is our careers adviser, she has worked in our school of 15 years and has a wealth of professional expertise. Her role is to offer one to one career counselling to all pupils to help them with decision making, understanding their goals and exploring all the opportunities open to them. Erin also teaches careers education to all year groups to highlight career management skills and lifelong career planning.

Erin is available in school (Rm D1.03 in the library) on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday and works from home on Wednesday.

You can contact her via erin.bartley@sds.co.uk or 01389 501173 ext 7124

Elaine Roberts – DYW (Developing the Young Workforce) School Coordinator

Elaine’s role is to maximise personal development and employment opportunities for all senior phase pupils through the provision of a personalised employability skills experience. This provides employer engagement opportunities, and increases the number of employers actively engaged in supporting and preparing young people for the world of work.

Both SDS and DYW work in partnership with the school to ensure that all of the pupils have seamless access to individual support, advice, guidance and engagement with employers - “No Wrong Door” .

Elaine is available in school on Monday & Tuesday and is supported by her colleague Holly Burrows on Thursdays in Rm D1.14 and can be contacted via elaine.roberts@ourcloud.buzz or 01389 777000 ext 7111.

Elaine and Erin have recently set up social media pages to deliver important messages about apprenticeships, open days and application dates, work experience and employability opportunities. As well as some of the work they are doing in school. Please follow them for more information on;

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VoLACareers

Twitter - https://twitter.com/VoLACareer