Euphony of Confidence
The drama studio at Dixons Broadgreen Academy was almost silent.
That's what happens when you ask a room full of Year 10 students to spend the next 90 minutes with two people they've never met before. Friends grouped close together, eyes were firmly fixed on the floor and if there was an opportunity to avoid being picked to answer a question, they were going to take it.
Over the course of the day, we delivered the pilot of our new Get In careers workshop to 180 students across three sessions. We've spent months building, testing and refining the workshop, but there comes a point where you have to stop tweaking PowerPoint slides, trust the process and see how young people respond.
Year 10 is a fascinating age. In a matter of weeks these students will return to school as Year 11s. GCSEs suddenly feel much closer, conversations about sixth forms and colleges become more frequent and there's an increasing expectation that they should have at least some idea of what they want to do after school.
The trouble is, many young people are trying to make those decisions having only ever seen the surface of an industry.
A love of football can feel like one career. An interest in gaming another. Beauty, art, music, fashion, business... all quickly become boxed into the handful of jobs students already know exist. What struck us wasn't a lack of ambition. Quite the opposite. They had interests, passions and ideas in abundance. They just hadn't been given the opportunity to explore just how many careers sit behind the things they already enjoy, and that became one of the biggest conversations of the day.
One group challenged us more than most. They weren't convinced by one of the activities. They’d been asked to expand on a love of reading and books and couldn't see where it was leading. Rather than pushing on, we told them about the book we’re currently ghostwriting.
We’ve never written a book before, but years of journalism, interviewing, research and a genuine love of reading somehow opened the door to a project we’d never imagined ourselves working on. You could almost see the penny drop. Career opportunities are often built by combining the skills you already have with the curiosity to learn a few more.
As the sessions unfolded, the room changed.
Students who had quietly slipped into their seats were now debating ideas across their tables. One group took their paper and markers down to the floor, making space for others to join uin. They challenged each other's thinking, asked thoughtful questions and began drawing links between hobbies and careers they'd never previously considered.
By the end of the sessions, groups of girls who had barely looked up when they arrived came over to ask whether Bailey&Reilly offered work experience or volunteer opportunities through our community arts projects. Those conversations probably meant more to us than they realised.
We also discovered that Year 10 boys are surprisingly happy to wear colourful stickers declaring "I AM AMAZING" if there's a lucky dip involved. Every student who completed an evaluation form received one, and watching six-foot tall lads stroll back down the corridor wearing them with absolute pride was one of those wonderfully unexpected moments that no workshop plan could ever predict.
Before we finished, we repeated the same activity we'd started with 90 minutes earlier. This time there were no whispers. Just 60 confident voices filling the room, shouting their own names and declaring the future of this city region, proudly theirs.
By the end of the day we'd collected 138 evaluation forms. More than 91% of students rated Get In four or five stars, adding further positivity to the staff feedback we received.
The real success was watching a room full of young people walk in believing they needed to have their futures mapped out, and leave with something much more valuable: a bigger sense of what might be possible and the tools to grab it with both hands.
We’re now taking bookings for September 2026-17 academic year. To chat through your careers education workshop needs, drop us a line.
