Over 65 organisations representing some of the country’s biggest companies took part in a careers day at a Harpenden school.

Herts Advertiser: Left is Tomisin Otenigbagbe, Head Girl of Sir John Lawes School, Deputy Mayor of Harpenden Mrs Nicola Linacre. and Sir John Lawes Head Boy Rory Glass on the right.Left is Tomisin Otenigbagbe, Head Girl of Sir John Lawes School, Deputy Mayor of Harpenden Mrs Nicola Linacre. and Sir John Lawes Head Boy Rory Glass on the right. (Image: Archant)

The Sir John Lawes Careers Day hosted such companies as Microsoft, John Lewis, Hilton, ITN, HSBC, Warner Bros, Thomson, Whitbread and Deloitte.

Employer talks were held in the morning followed by a careers exhibition in the sports hall during the afternoon.

Year 12 students from the two other Harpenden secondary schools as well as the Samuel Ryder Academy and Loreto College in St Albans went along to the event.

The objective was to educate students about the post A-level employment options that were available, ranging from school leaver and higher level apprenticeship programmes to graduate entry schemes.

The increase in university fees has seen a change in emphasis with more companies every year introducing alternatives to their traditional graduate level recruitment streams.

Julie Honour-Jones, Sir John Lawes sixth form manager said: “We were delighted to provide our largest careers fair to date with so many high calibre companies attending and sharing their opportunities with our students and those from other secondary schools in Harpenden and St Albans.

“Our students have gained far more knowledge on the choices available to them post A-level both in terms of the actual roles they would like to peruse and also regarding the various entry level options into those companies.”