THE first ever careers fair held at Corbridge Middle School was a huge success, with students providing positive feedback.

“It was a very helpful and informative day”, “It was a good idea and inspired me to keep my options open for the future” and “I have now chosen what I want to do when I am older” were just some of the comments made by Year 7 and Year 8 pupils who took part in the event.

More than 20 different careers were represented, including the armed forces, banking, medicine, media, IT, retail, personal beauty, childcare, veterinary, emergency services, catering and hospitality, sport, engineering and medical sciences.

Newcastle University, Westway Vets, IHC Engineering Business, Egger UK, Hewlett Packard, This Is Creative Enterprise, Sky News, BBC Radio, Gardiner Richardson Ltd, Physio & Therapy, Tesco, Reflections Salon, Barclays Bank, Kirkley Hall College, Lord Crewe Arms, Little Tinklers, KCR SOlutions, RAF, Royal Artillery and Northumbria Police were all represented.

The event was held as part of the school’s careers education and information guidance curriculum, and followed an afternoon where – with the help of Barclays Bank, Egger and KCR Solutions – the school ran sessions with its 12 and 13 year olds on personal impact, interview techniques, CVs and skills needed by employers.

Corbridge Middle School’s chairman of governors Jo Holmes said: “Opening the eyes of our young people about all the wonderful careers that are available for them in the future is so important, especially as they start making choices at such a young age about those subjects they wish to concentrate on at school.

“There are so many great job opportunities right here in the North-East, especially in STEM and the Creative industries.

“All the employers I contacted willingly gave their time to help our young people make the right choices for their future. Without them these events would not have been possible.”

As a result of the events, over 94 per cent of the pupils know what skills employers are looking for, how to answer questions about themselves and how to present themselves to prospective employers.

A total of 95 per cent of the pupils know more about what options are available to them when they reach 16 years old and 86 per cent said it helped them to know what they wanted to do in the future.

A spokesman for Barclays said: “It was a great afternoon, very well organised and the pupils we spoke to said that they were loving the afternoon.

“If it helped the pupils by giving them an idea of what they would be interested in, it would be well worth holding it again. I wish it was something that was done when I was at school.”

The students were interested in all the careers, with the most popular being setting up your own business/entrepreneurship, the armed forces, the creative industries, media and science research.

Due to its huge success the school plans to hold similar events every two years.