On Wednesday 6th March we were delighted to be joined by Jill Weekes who delivered a Hepworth Lecture to our Year 12 and Year 13 students. 

Jill is the founder of Bossed Consulting, a career counselling service working with hundreds of young people to support them to make decisions about their next steps. Over the past academic year Jill has delivered several careers workshops for our younger students in Key Stage 4 as part of the Pathways to Success programme.

In her lecture, Jill spoke about how common it is for students and young people to be uncertain of their future career, referencing data from the Institute for Government and Public Policy, which states that 70% of students don’t know what they want to do for a career, and 78% of young people are worried about this (2021).

The aim of Jill’s lecture was to support students in gaining confidence in making decisions. She reminded students that they will never exactly know the outcome and cannot control all potential outcomes; therefore all they can do is be confident in their abilities and their decisions. 

Jill spoke about the importance of self-reflection for your future, using the VOISS framework: values, optima (the conditions you need to be at your best), interests, strengths and superpowers.

She also spoke about feeling fulfilled in all 4 key areas of your life: work, love, health and play. To reflect, consider the VOISS categories and whether they are being satisfied in all four areas of your life. One suggestion was to complete a life audit with key questions including: How engaged am I? How energised am I? Are my values being met? Where do I want to go?

Jill concluded her lecture with a message of reassurance for students that may not be confident – courage comes before confidence; new experiences can be intimidating and uncomfortable at first, but confidence comes with experience and practise. 

A big thank you to Jill for joining us and speaking with our Sixth Form students, it was a thought-provoking lecture and certainly gave our students lots to reflect upon.

Mr D Eggleston

Deputy Head: Teaching and Learning