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Careers at NUAST

Careers at NUAST are at the very heart of everything that we do. Around 80% of our Post 16 students go on to University study, with the majority of the rest choosing higher or degree level apprenticeships.

This page of our website is designed for our current students to help find the future direction that is right for them.

All schools have a designated careers leader. At NUAST this is a member of the leadership team and from 2024 this is Mr Modi, Assistant Headteacher.

Click here to visit our Virtual Careers Library

NUAST Parent guide to careers

Please find below a link to our parent's guide to careers education at NUAST. This booklet gives you the information you need about who to contact and how, the Gatsby benchmarks we work to and how we aim to fulfill them , how to use both Unifrog and KUDOS and the provision we plan for your child all the way through their school life, from year 7 to year 11

Click here to download our Parent guide to careers education at NUAST

Independent careers advice

We are proud to have worked for many years with Ideas4careers, a professional independent careers advice company based locally. They provide independent, expert, sound advice to our students about their next steps, producing a careers action plan that is linked to the student's unifrog account.

Your child will have a one to one careers interview with a qualified careers advisor three times:

• In year 9, to support with making the best choices for their GCSE options
• In year 11, to support with making those crucial Post 16 choices and college applications
• Year 12, to support with future careers plans and their choices of university course, apprenticeship or other route.

For more information on Ideas4careers, please see their website

ideas4careers.co.uk/

​Unifrog

At the heart of careers at is Unifrog. All students from year 10 upwards currently have a unifrog log in. Unifrog is an extremely powerful tool that allows students to see current university places on offer, apprenticeships of all levels as well as sixth form places. Students can enter their own predicted grades and Unifrog will find you courses related to your interests that suit your likely results.

Students can filter opportunities according to distance, type of institution, student satisfaction and much more. Students can write their Cv's and application letters using its software.

Students can sign in here

In addition, Unifrog offers:

• Access to thousands of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
• ​Comprehensive information and videos about jobs and careers
• Loads of advice on the application process
• Ability to record any work experience you might have
• Ability to record skills you have learned for competency based interview questions
• Ability to record interactions with employers

We encourage ALL students in years 10-13 to use Unifrog frequently. Students can use their phones to access it.

Kudos

Kudos is our online careers advice platform, which can be used alongside Unifrog.

Kudos gives our students all the information they need to make important decisions about future careers and what subjects, courses and training they can do to reach their career destination.

If a student is unsure of what careers they might be interested in, Kudos can give ideas based on what they like and dislike. They can also discover what careers their subjects can lead to.

Once registered, Kudos will ask a series of questions about yourself, your skills, your likes and dislikes. From this, Kudos will create a list of jobs and careers that closely match your skills and interests. Both students and their parents can find out lots of information about these jobs, the grades needed for them and how to apply for them in the future.

Kudos also allows you to explore career pathways; so if a student is interested in a career in medicine, Kudos will show hundreds of different roles in medicine that you could do. Likewise, a student may be interested in engineering, but not be sure what specifically they would enjoy; Kudos lets you explore the many different types of engineer that you could be, and will match you to specific types that will match their survey results. Kudos will also tell you about the availability of these kinds of jobs in your local area and can even point you to the correct college or university courses to prepare for them.

Getting logged on

Students can start by going to: https://www.cascaid.co.uk/

Click in the top right corner that says "log in" and choose Kudos. All NUAST students are registered via their school email address on KUDOS- details of how to set a password and get logged in for the first time can be found in the parents guide to careers at NUAST (see above).

Destinations and apprenticeships

Please see the excellent video below by D2N2, showcasing some of the excellent apprenticeship opportunities out there. The video features two of our former engineering students who, with our support, won apprenticeships at Swiftool Precision Engineering, a local Nuclear and Petrochemical engineering company that has worked with NUAST

For Employers

NUAST is determined to develop fantastic young people who are "work ready" and professional from their first day on the job. Our aim is to shape young people that local businesses will want to employ, and we are delighted that so many local employers come back to us again and again seeking new recruits because they have seen how great our students are.

We aim to ensure our students are placed in the best possible apprenticeships, training opportunities and jobs. If you are an employer looking for young people to join your apprenticeship, training scheme or for work opportunities and there are specific skills you are looking for, please get in touch with us via enquiries@nuast.org

We will speak to students with the right skillsets you are looking for and, with their agreement, forward you their CV and facilitate an application.

We are always delighted to hear from new employers who would like to work with us, either on outreach activities or to advertise their career opportunities. Again, please contact us on enquiries@nuast.org if you would like to discuss working with us.