The grand finale to the Horizons calendar for the academic year is the 'Broaden your Horizons' event, an annual Higher Education, university and careers fair for the benefit of Bradfield and our local partner schools*.

This year the team were delighted to host over 50 exhibitors including several gap year organisations, overseas universities, and advisors as well as the usual mix of UK universities. There were also an increased number of businesses offering fantastic alternatives to university through some excellent degree apprenticeship schemes as well as school leaver programmes. 

One such organisation is IT and business consultancy firm CGI who sent Harry Banton (G 13-18) as their representative and were one of the first organisations to adopt the degree apprenticeship scheme model. Harry is a regular supporter of Horizons events, this being the third careers' fair he has attended in addition to attending pupil networking events in the Michaelmas term.

I am very happy to come back to Bradfield to share my experience as a degree apprentice and the benefits that this career path offers 

He is also an advocate of the degree apprenticeship scheme as a career path that has worked for him. Harry joined CGI directly after completing his A-levels at Bradfield. In his first three years he and his fellow degree apprentice cohort worked four days a week for CGI and spent their fifth day at university. That day of university was a week of lectures in one day so it was a very intense experience but the company were supportive and flexible when it came to allowing the apprentices to meet their study deadlines.

So, six years after leaving Bradfield as a degree apprentice, Harry is now a senior consultant at CGI with a flat, car, a university degree and no debt, a very enviable position in comparison with his full-time university attending colleagues. There is no lock-in period for degree apprentices who can leave the scheme at any point. The company are however alive to the fact that treating employees well will leave the door open for employees to return when they are more senior and bring their newly acquired skills with them.

In terms of entry requirements applicants need to have strong but not necessarily top A level grades - 120 UCAS points - as the company is very interested in a candidate's character, attitude and trainability which it judges on assessment days. 

If you are interested in learning more about the degree apprenticeship schemes open to your child or would like to volunteer your services in terms of supporting our careers' events at Bradfield please email horizons@bradfieldcollege.org.uk 

*Our local partner schools are Theale Green, The Downs, Little Heath, and Pangbourne and they bring a further 100 plus pupils to the event which helps to draw in the variety of universities and companies to our event.