STUDENTS at Peter Symonds are considering their future options after the college held its annual careers day.

The event, hosted online for the first time, saw nearly 150 talks, with a variety of guest speakers from the fields of higher education, public services and local and national business.

Sessions on 'Teaching in a Secondary School', 'Town Planning and Urban Design' and 'Benefits of Taking a Gap Year' were particularly popular among students.

They were able to listen to and quiz speakers from a wide variety of organisations including the BBC and ITV, law firms and legal chambers, the Armed Forces and public services, including nursing, midwifery and the police and ambulance services.

Debbie Mahoney, head of the careers department at Peter Symonds, said: “Careers Day is always an amazing opportunity for students to gain an insight into the diverse range of career areas and opportunities available, labour market information, and to broaden their knowledge of courses available in higher education so they can make informed decisions about their next steps.

“Speakers, staff and students all embraced the new 'zoom' version of Careers Day and the day ran incredibly well. We have had fantastic comments from our speakers, who commented on how well received they felt, how impressed with they were with the number of students attending and how motivated the students were to listen and ask questions.”

Students attended between 3-6 sessions over the course of the day.

Joanna Lee of the South Central Ambulance Service said: "This virtual event was very well organised and we all felt from our end it was a great success. It was lovely to have the students ask lots of questions and we felt we got more questions than we would when we come face to face to deliver these presentations.”

Sarah Byard from Lancaster University agreed, adding: "A really well run event. Students were engaged and asked so many questions, which was fab."