Shropshire ‘Future Leaders’ careers event declared big success
An interactive careers event at Shrewsbury School, featuring workshops by business ambassadors from across Shropshire and surrounding area, has been declared a big success.
Feedback from the 180 fourth form students and 21 business, who ran workshops at the ‘Future Leaders – Celebrating Shropshire’ event last week, was resoundingly positive.
The event was a collaboration between Andrew Goff, managing director of Interactive Opportunities Ltd, Shropshire Chamber of Commerce and Shrewsbury School. They are keen to demonstrate to students the vast and exciting range of career opportunities that exist within Shropshire and the surrounding area.
Students were able to explore diverse career paths, gain practical insights and interact directly with industry experts at workshops ranging from entrepreneurship, law, agriculture cyber security and motorsport engineering, charities, to sales and marketing.
The partners revealed their ambition to hold a much larger event next year at Telford International Centre with 100 participating businesses, attracting students from schools across Shropshire.
Otis Powell, Shropshire Chamber of Commerce membership manager, said: “It was a truly inspiring event to be involved with, to see so many exceptional businesses brought together for the betterment of the future generation.
“Hopefully, this event can lead the way to bigger and better things in all areas of careers education.”
Andrew added: “The Future Leaders careers event was highly beneficial in expanding students' understanding of potential career paths, motivating them to pursue their interests and providing clarity on the steps needed to achieve their goals.
"The event successfully showcased a variety of opportunities and inspired students to consider both traditional and non-traditional career routes, emphasising the importance of passion, adaptability and continuous learning.
“The feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive. Many appreciated the interactive and engaging nature of the workshops, emphasising how they felt actively involved rather than being passive listeners.
“The diversity of industries represented and the hands-on activities were particularly well-received.”
Chris Wain, Shrewsbury School’s Head of Futures, said: “It was a privilege to welcome so many engaging and enthusiastic companies to Shrewsbury School for this new fourth form event. I am so grateful they were willing to give up their time to inspire our future leaders.
“An important part of my role is to ensure that, where it is practical and possible, events delivered by the Futures Department are made available to pupils in the locality. I am excited about working with Interactive Opportunities and Shropshire Chamber of Commerce to ensure that this happens with this event in 2025.”
Speakers at the workshops included ambassadors from Halls, Coforge, 8 Financial Planning, Barclays Bank, AO Recycling, VITAL Drinks, Lily Shippen Recruitment, Start Tech, New Era Printing, Morris Lubricants, Thomas Horton Racing, Furrows Group, Shoothill, Shropshire Business Live TV, Agrii, EVC Solutions, Lanyon Bowdler, Sales Geek Shropshire, BUY-FROM Creative Agency, Lingen Davies Cancer Charity and Makefast.
