FORMER students from North Bromsgrove High School went gone back to the classroom as part of a nationwide campaign to inspire state school students to achieve academic success and career confidence.
A total of 30 members of the school’s alumni participated in workshops with current students, helping them look at options for their career paths and analyse their employability skills as part of the national Back to School Week launched by leading education charity Future First.
From pilots, lawyers and doctors, to social workers, book-keepers and self-employed entrepreneurs, the North Bromsgrove High School alumni came from a wide variety of vocations and professions.
Future First/YouGov polling shows comprehensive school students are far more pessimistic about their future job prospects than their privately educated peers.
The research shows state school students are ten times more likely to think people from their school do not succeed in the world of work compared with students at private schools.
And they’re five times less likely to think people who went to their school were very successful compared with their private school counterparts.
The polling also showed how private school students are better at asking for support from alumni, although former state school students are just as likely to want to help current students at their old schools.
Future First executive chair and former Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said the figures showed there was a huge need to support state educated students make the difficult transition from school to work and to drive more ambitious thinking about their expectations of work in the modern world.
She said: “Every state school student should have the opportunity to succeed in life after school, regardless of their background.
“Many schools are already harnessing the skills and experience of alumni as role models who inspire and motivate current students.
“If students see people like them have succeeded they are more likely to believe they can too.”
She added the organisation wanted more schools to follow North Bromsgrove High’s lead and organise events with their alumni.
