Young people and parents from across the county have been encouraged to make use of the digital tool – which launched earlier this year – after it was revealed that nearly 45% of entries across the UK saw top A-Level grades on Tuesday.
With teenagers from across Oxfordshire collecting their exam results, the county’s local enterprise partnership are supporting young people – supported by their parents – to make informed career choices and highlight the major opportunities open to them close to home.
The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) Skills team launched the ‘Find your Future’ platform back in March as an initiative to support young people to make informed choices about their future, as well as inspiring them to understand the opportunities that exist in Oxfordshire across a huge variety of sectors.
The digital platform has been updated for the recipients of this year’s A-Level and GCSE results, with a new results day ‘dome’ highlighting the various career pathways available to young people in the county.
This includes access to information on further education, T-Levels, apprenticeships, traineeships and higher education – with access to resources such as the UCAS clearing page and advice from the National Careers Service.
GCSE students are also able to ‘self-refer’ for free careers advice and guidance through the platform as part of OxLEP Skills’ ‘Ahead of the Game’ results day programme.
Updates to the digital tool come as it was announced earlier this week that this year’s A-Level results reached a record-high – with nearly 45% of entries achieving grades of A or A* – in-light of what for many has been a year of disruption and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the second year running, this year’s official exams were cancelled, seeing final grades based upon assessments from teachers.
With over 70 Oxfordshire-based businesses involved in ‘Find Your Future’, the virtual careers fair has allowed students to find out more about the individual businesses in the county and their possible career options, despite what for many has been a highly-turbulent period of study.
The platform is set to run until next March and sees some of Oxfordshire’s most-exciting fields of work represented – from life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, to advanced engineering and a range of transformative technologies that globally, Oxfordshire leads the way.
‘Find Your Future’ also offers further practical support too, with companies such as; Oxfordshire County Council’s Education Employment and Training Service, National Citizen Service and Adviza offering advice on interview skills, employability skills and labour market information.
Sally Andreou, Skills Hub Manager at OxLEP, said: “We are really pleased to be able to support Oxfordshire’s young people in understanding the opportunities that are out there for them – many being right here in the county.
“The ‘Find your Future’ platform offers a huge variety of industry zones, supported by world-leading businesses and showcasing the global potential of many of Oxfordshire’s key sectors.
"Whoever you are and whatever your exam results, there is a career path for you here in Oxfordshire."
‘Find Your Future’ has been funded through a partnership between the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) and OxLEP and developed by Oasis Studio.
