Time at Bo’ness Academy: 2014 – 2020 (Profile completed June 2020 - days after leaving the school)

What will be your destination after leaving Bo’ness Academy? (college,uni, job, apprenticeship etc)

Now that I have finished school. I am moving onto a Graduate Apprenticeship with Leonardo which is in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, where I will be gaining both training by the company and a BEng Degree in Design Engineering.

 

What school subjects do you feel have helped you most in your career plans?

I feel as though the technologies department and their subjects have helped me solidify this career path the most as throughout my time at school I had always looked forward to these classes and took both Design & Manufacture and Graphic Communication in my senior years at school, achieving high grades in both. I also feel Maths had a big influence in this choice as my teacher always made sure to link what we were doing in our lessons to the real world and the careers they would lead us to. All my favourite lessons were linked into engineering. Throughout my senior years I also decided to take a variety of creative subjects such as Art and Photography that have shown me that my future career should have a balance of both technical and creative aspects.

 

What advice would you offer to pupils when they are choosing subjects at school?

The advice I would give to pupils choosing their subjects is to firstly pick the subjects that you enjoy and look forward to in the week as you will naturally enjoy studying for them and put in the effort to achieve the grades you want or need. However, I would also recommend choosing the subjects that you need such as Maths, English or any other subjects that may be required if you have an idea about what you want to do when you leave school, such as a science or language. This will ensure you have a strong variety of subjects that will make you stand out to employers or to the colleges/universities as you have evidence of the diverse skills that you have worked on during your time in school.

 

Within school you got heavily involved in leadership opportunities. How do you think they have benefited you as you leave school?

Throughout my time at school I have always been keen to get involved in as many leadership opportunities as I could, some examples are; Young Ambassador and Cheer Captain for the P.E department, a Prefect from S4 to S6, House Captain for Forth House in S5 and Vice School Captain in my final year at school. I feel as though all these opportunities have benefitted me in different ways such as improving on many transferable skills such as; Teamwork, Communication, Organisation and Leadership skills. These have all had a role to play in making me a more confident individual who can now speak in front of large groups, these skills can also be used in any career path and will make me stand out when applying for any course or job in the future, so I recommend for pupils to get involved with any leadership opportunity to allow their skills to be improved and to give them a chance for them to improve the school.

 

As you came towards the end of S6 you had both University offers and Apprenticeship offers. What influenced your final decision?

I have had difficulty deciding what to do once I have left school for many years now as I just always thought that university was where I should aim to be as that is where the majority of pupils end up going after achieving similar grades to mine. However, after talking to my parents and the Careers Advisor about these concerns they suggested that maybe an apprenticeship would also be good to apply for to give me options and to not have any major bills to pay off for years after I have left university. After discussing with several people that I feel have my best interest and thinking long about the pros and cons to both paths, I found something that had the best parts of university and an apprenticeship. A Graduate Apprenticeship is where you are employed by a company and they train you up with their specialists meanwhile you are studying for a degree with a partnered University and your earning potential is increased due to this. I felt like this was the best option for me as I will be earning a wage the first year out of school with the potential to progress my career options in the future with this dynamic company.

 

Did you feel supported by the school in relation to Careers Advice during your time applying for University and Apprenticeships?

I was supported by all my teachers when applying for both University and Apprenticeships; Mrs Hill and Mr McFarlane helped me set up my UCAS account and informed me with everything I needed to know during the application and track process. The school’s Careers Advisor, Lee Sherekete also managed to help highlight the vast variety of Graduate Apprenticeships that were on offer and linked into my subjects that I took and the skills that I achieved. Mr Latimer was my main reference when applying on UCAS and alongside Ms Nicol, they managed to assist me with any questions or queries I had about leaving school and made sure I felt like my decisions for my next steps were the right ones.

 

What are your favourite memories of Bo’ness Academy?

My favourite memories of Bo’ness Academy would probably be when I have been offered and took part in the experiences that the school put me forward for. Some include; Going on top of the Forth Rail Bridge and being chosen to take part in Scottish Space School with the University of Strathclyde, partnered with NASA. I would probably say Space School was my favourite memory as I got to have a taster of every different type of engineering, which solidified what type of engineering I enjoyed the most. Throughout the week I won many side challenges with my team and made many friends with the same interests and goals for their futures that I will keep in contact for a long time.