 Hello, I'm Alled Roberts, a careers adviser at Careers Wales. I'm delighted to be joined by the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, Lee Waters, Alison Stallard, Head of Income, Generation and Marketing at the Hospice of the Valleys and Ashley Davies, Assistant Technician at Engineering, Design and Planning Company, Arap. All four are past pupils of schools in South Wales and are here to talk about the exciting alumni project. Let's start with a brief introduction then from everybody. So, tell us about your former school, your current role, how you found out about the alumni project and why you wanted to support it. Starting with the First Minister. Diolch yn fawr, Alled. Well, I'm Mark Drakeford, I'm the First Minister of Wales. I'm from Cymarthen originally and went to what was then Cymarthen Boys Grammar School in Cymarthen. I've done many things since then before I got to the job I'm doing today. I heard about the alumni programme through Lee originally. He was telling me how it worked and what he was designed to achieve and I think it's great to be able just to share some experiences with others and to just demonstrate the choices that are there for people and how they might go about making them. Diolch yn fawr. Well Deputy Minister, Lee Wartus, tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I'm the member of the Senate for the Chmarche constituency and I'm a Minister in the Economy and Transport Department. I'm from the Amman Valley. I would do Amman Valley for the Comprehensive School, that's called Gevin Diffrin Amman, as it's now called. I can remember when I was about 14, being told if you want to get on, you've got to get out. I remember feeling that was wrong then, my life is wrong now. If people with something about them leave, then our areas are never going to grow stronger because a way forward, a way of rebuilding our communities lies within our genius and our talent is there. But often what we lack is those networks, those relationships that help us get through life. When I got my last job leading a think tank, I was writing to my old school saying I had no relationship with my school at all. Can I help? I have this network. I've created my own network since leaving. Can I help anybody at the school? I have no reply. I looked at how universities work and how private schools work and they all have these alumni networks where they help out pupils. I thought why don't comps have these? They need to have them. If you want to, I'm going back to the school to the prize giving evening, say if you're at the school and you want to have your extension built or your car fixed, you've got a network. But if you want an internship with a city law firm, you probably haven't. But I guarantee that if people have gone to the school, who could help. They just don't know how to help because they don't get asked. And the people in the school don't know how to find them. So let's put those two things together and help each other. Thank you. Alison Stallard. Hi everyone. My name is Alison Stallard and I went to Penadry High School in Booth of Tiddavill. I'm currently the head of income generation for Hospice of the Valleys based over in Blaenogwent. I was approached by Geraldine from Careers Wales about becoming part of the alumni. And to be honest, when I saw the opportunity, I thought it was fantastic. For very similar reasons that Mr Waters has talked about the Deputy Minister in terms of, I feel quite passionately about the school I went to. It's quite often had, you know, not the most positive of press in terms of where it's based. However, I went to that school and they were a fantastic support to me and certainly a huge positive impact on my education. Unfortunately, my mum passed away when I was 15 just before I sat my GCSEs. And the school was a huge support in terms of supporting me through that and supporting me onwards through my A-levels. And I feel it's an honour really to be asked to be part of this programme for that reason, to be able to share and impart some of my knowledge and experience that I've gained over my career so far with pupils in the school now. But also to try and broaden people's horizons when I was in school, the third sector wasn't really talked about. I wasn't aware anyway that you could have a very long and prosperous career within the third sector. And so I'm keen to promote that and make young people aware that there is the third sector where your skills can be transferred across into the sector and you can have a fantastic career. But for me, the crux of it is that I'm doing something and I'm actually making a difference to the kind of people that I work with and for. So yeah, there's quite a few reasons why I'm keen to be involved in this programme. Thank you. And finally, Ashley Davis. So my name is Ashley. I went to Covalta High School in Murthyrtidville. It was commonly up against Pernodrae, Alice in the School in all the sporting events. And I'm currently an assistant technician for a company called Arap, which has an office based in Cardiff Bay. But they have a multitude of offices scattered around the UK and across five continents, I believe. I found the alumni programme through Geraldine. She sent me an email. I think it was like a maths email that had been sent out to lots of different people and I reached out and said, yeah, I'd love to be involved. And the reason that I wanted to get involved was because I joined Arap as an apprentice. I went from sixth form to an apprenticeship and I felt like there wasn't enough sort of advertisement of apprenticeships and that you were very much pushed down the university route if you were academic. And I was someone who was quite academic in school and I just didn't like the idea of university. It didn't really appeal to me. It looked very, very expensive to me. And I like the idea of having my own money and not having to rely on my parents for the next few years because the grant and loan system wouldn't have provided me with enough money to see myself through university. So I would have been very dependent on my parents and I didn't want that for myself anymore. And I thought that this programme would be a really good way to sort of advertise apprenticeships to young people in school and even just let them know that they're an option and that you don't have to go to university. OK, thank you. I think that's quite valid when it was, you know, when you were in school and I think the same is valid today with the choices and the options that young people had. It'd be good to know maybe a little bit more about each of our guests and their journey from school to the role that they have now. When we asked current pupils what they would like to ask former pupils, Nathan at Gabbathfa High School wanted to know if this is the only job you ever wanted to do or was there something else when you were younger? You know, Ashleigh, you said you're an ex-Gabbathfa pupil perhaps you'd like to answer that first. So when I was in school I didn't think I would, well when I say didn't think I'd be an engineer I wanted to be a pop star. I wanted to travel the world and tour everywhere. I started a YouTube channel, I wrote my own songs. I really enjoyed writing generally so I started a blog and started reaching out to different websites to write for them. But when I was in school I really, really enjoyed maths. I really like the problem solving aspect of it and this is going to sound really sad but I found it quite thrilling when you found the solution to a problem and you found out that it was the right dancer. I was like this is incredible and when it sort of came to picking what I wanted to do I thought well do you know what to be an engineer or do something maths based and say oh but in my spare time you know I write for my blog and I play the ukulele. I thought that sounded pretty cool but what I thought wouldn't sound as good is if I said oh I write for a living but in my spare time I do third order differential equations doesn't sound quite as riveting and it sounds like quite a boring hobby. So that was how I sort of ended up pursuing engineering. I really enjoyed maths, I really enjoyed the sciences and a few teachers in school said you'd like engineering and I was like I don't really know what that is. No one really explained what that involved. They just said oh you like maths yeah engineering's for you and then I thought £9,000 a lot of money to find out I don't like it so I'll go somewhere else and work the job and see if I do like it and maybe then I'll pursue it as a full-time career. Okay what about the others then maybe first minister you know when you were sort of the ages of 14 to 16 did you have any sort of career ideas at that sort of time in your life? I think fair to say that I didn't know at all. I would like to open the batting for Glamorgan. I still think that was probably amongst my ambitions when I was 14 and I absolutely I took completely what Ashley said really you know I did loads of different jobs and the main thing I think is to have a go and see if you enjoy it and I'd be very lucky. I've generally done jobs that I've enjoyed and they mean as I say completely different in character and I think when you're very young you shouldn't over plan you shouldn't feel that because you make a decision that somehow that's it forever because life turns up not to be like that and life turns up all sorts of chances that you haven't thought about and sometimes some chances that you hope were there and what you want to need to do is to ask yourself you know what will I get out of it what will I enjoy are these people I like working with you know I've done some very good jobs and sometimes work with people I didn't get that on with that well and didn't enjoy it and I've done some pretty tough jobs at different times and if I've done them with people I like I've enjoyed going into work every day there's lots of things to weigh up being willing just to take chances as they come and take experiences as they come you you'll learn a lot and you'll be surprised at what turns up to work for you. Alison you know you mentioned in Penodrae when you were sort of 16 thinking about the future you know what you think was going through your mind what was the main priority for you at that stage do you feel of your life? Well it was probably quite confused really because I think there was that level of expectation that by that point that you needed to well before that really you needed to know what you wanted to do because you had to choose you know your kind of GCSE options and different things and and I can only echo really what the others have said so far in that I took the approach of doing things that I enjoyed and that I was good at and that made me happy and so those were my kind of choices for GCSEs etc and I jumped around in terms of thinking what I wanted to do I think very early on I wanted to be an accountant but I don't think my math skills were quite as advanced as Ashley's I didn't quite enjoy doing equations as much then I thought about joining the forces I did some work experience in the RAF and again that was something that appealed to me and then the police force and then being a PE teacher I loved sport but I also loved music and so I kind of went down that route then but but yeah I would certainly it's difficult at that age in your life to make decisions and I think you do feel pressure you know with making choices and thinking oh what if this isn't the right decision what if this isn't the right subject and I can remember you know having conversations with with staff in in the school and and then you know they they were they were really honest and kind of said look this isn't the be all and end all you know you you you do what you enjoy what you're good at and you know you're not defined by the choices that you make now so yeah I think it's trying to to do the things you enjoy and that make you happy and and that you're good at and Lee Waters in the Arman Valley you know was it the same sort of thought process for you? Yeah I'm a very clear young age knowing I didn't want to get wet working the cold that was my key starting point but all the men in my family worked you know cold and wet and I didn't want I didn't want that my grandmother just before she died in the early 90s held my hand and she said to me almost with a sigh of pride you've got gentlemen's hands she said and I took that as a sign of success I didn't have to do the the rough old jobs of all the men in my family had done but nobody had gone to college and my mother when I was 14 she'd been a hairdresser and had divorced my father and didn't know what to do and she went back to college and trained to be a careers advisor and seeing her go through that process of pushing herself and working made really walk a spirit in me really and then that's when I decided I wanted to go to college I never thought about it before I wanted to be a reporter until I figured out that you had to learn shorthand and I couldn't I couldn't get my head on shorthand far too complicated but I did become a reporter despite not knowing shorthand but that's been my pattern too really do something you like and do it for as long as you're learning new things I want you to stop learning new things try something else and the other thing I said other reflection I offered people is don't just see your day job as the only thing you do do volunteering as well because I've learned as much from being a school governor as I learned from being a reporter and it's through being a school governor it made me want to leave being a reporter to do other things where I felt like I was making a contribution so just keep you know the get off this cliche in school the more you put in the more you get out they're being told that all the time but clubs and that is absolutely right about life in work as well and most of you do and everybody has different passions don't they and some people are happy just flooding along and some people are not happy flooding along but just do what feels right listen during sphinct because it's rarely wrong yes some good points there I I feel for young people to maybe take on board now when when they are looking towards the future again you know how things are at the moment in in the big wide world you know resilience it's always been an important part of the world of work you know and maybe more so for young people now how did you cope Alison you know maybe with some early frustrations or rejections when you were younger looking at that first step on to the job ladder um I think in my younger days I certainly lacked confidence in my ability and I think that would be one of the biggest pieces of advice I would give to young people these days is to and I think it's worse now because of all the pressure of social media and things but to be confident in your ability and don't compare yourself to others um because I quite often wouldn't put myself forward for things or wouldn't apply for a job or things because I'd always think oh no there'd be somebody better than me somebody else will get that and and it was only through um having small little part-time jobs I worked from the age of 16 you know in in lots of different part-time jobs that I learned resilience in terms of you know understanding how the world of work actually worked um and and that was good experience for me you know that kind of went in line and kind of parallel to my to my education then and yeah I think I think confidence is a big thing and I think young people these days there is this you know this this world out there where this what I call it the Instagram world where everything looks perfect and and you know abrushed photographs and all the rest of it and I think it's hard for young people because they're constantly seeing this and comparing themselves and I think it's quite a a fake world that exists and I think if ever there was a time for people to to to kind of not judge you know look at others and judge and just be confident in you and your ability it it's now really it may be to the first minister I mean obviously involved in politics resilience plays quite a big part in that job but what about you know in the early days perhaps when you were looking for that first opportunity when you left university how was that for you when your first job is a tough job because you know you're not used at that point just to the basic routines are you you know I went from university to to work and on the first first of September 1979 I turned up at the probation office in Westgate Street at Cardiff and 10 years later I was still there although I was I never planned that but the challenge challenges a lot aren't you you're learning the job inevitably you're learning the routines of work it could be there every morning at nine o'clock you're going to be there for the day all of those things that you have to get used to I really echo something that Lee said you know it's good to be doing more than one thing because in any job you will have days and sometimes even a bit more than days when the job is pretty tough and difficult and turn more than one thing on the goal because you know you're doing a bit of voluntary work or you're doing a bit of study sometimes I've you know I continue to work in some university study while I was working and on the bad days it's good to save yourself what I really do you see what I really do is the other thing it's a bit like Ashley was saying you know what I really do is I don't do equations what I really do is I write songs and so having more than one thing going on in your life I think helps you to get through some of the tougher times in work and then you come through those and you know generally you've learned from what you've done you carry on what about you Lee Waters did was there any sort of parental or peer pressure on you when you were in school to go down a certain route or or not none at all and this is why I think the alumni network is so important because it's those practical advice you may not having your own network in your own family because nobody in my family then experienced many things I was interested in and you know a couple of schools have experimented with this already and we're speaking to the head teacher in um Risker comp and Lewis Boys in Penguin they've been doing a scheme like this with Future First who's helping us with this project because they've created a toolkit of every school in Wales for an access to and then there's going to be 10 valley schools who create Wales help a bit more but they gave me the great example of when they'd done their first of database of their former pupils and they'd asked people did you go here would you let us know because schools don't keep the record they've lost touch with their former pupils which is one of the things we're trying to put right in this project and they had a couple of lads who wanted to be airline pilots now it costs them like a hundred grand the train to be an airline pilot and you know it's a particular set of skills and experiences and if you don't know people in who's been an airline pilot you don't know whether it's right for you or that's the right thing to do or should you go on the air force first or whatever and the great thing they were able to do through this project is they had no idea they had some former pupils were airline pilots but because of this exercise they carried them out and they were able to connect the current airline pilots with the kids who wanted to be airline pilots and have a conversation of what was it for them and what are the steps they should do what work experience was the right thing that they wanted to study and that sort of social capital is invaluable I think and where families haven't got those networks so you know you're not the son of a doctor or or or whatever you wouldn't possibly know what jobs exist and that's the thing about the world of work jobs have existed 50 years ago now a stopping existing when jobs didn't exist three years ago all of a sudden they've been invented and you couldn't possibly know about that unless you reach out to people and that's I hope that this scheme will be I think you're right there because technology now is moving at a fast pace and I know in Wales there are lots of industries now blossoming you know I'm thinking of the the wafer factory outside Newport which is really cutting edge kind of thing but I'm just wondering maybe Ashley is there anything you feel that you might have done differently back when you were in school to to get you to where you are now I think if I could do anything differently back when I was in school it would be to pick GCSEs that I enjoyed not things that I thought were the smart choices I'd have done the things that I genuinely thought I'm just doing this because I like it not because I think this is going to have an end career but because I think this is something that I'm going to really enjoy doing and I think I would like Leah said try and reach out to people who are in the industry that I'm interested in because when you speak to your teachers a lot of the teachers that you speak to have gone from school to university to doing a PGCE and then into teaching so when you say to you know your physics or maths teacher I'm looking into engineering they don't really know what what that sort of involves in the the real world and I think that's that's something that I would really encourage students to do is to try and reach out and find people who who have that sort of information and hopefully this project will allow for that and if I might add you know on behalf of careers Wales we've got careers advisors in every school in Wales so you know utilise our expertise we're up to date with you know labour market trends where the demand for the futures will be and hopefully we can give you unbiased advice and guidance towards the future so that's all yes the thing I found as well is is amazing most people are willing to help somebody who asks them for help and often kids don't perk up the confidence and the courage to ask for help and that's one thing I did and I was probably a bit odd there was in that sense you know I just won't let this to people who are doing the jobs I was interested in saying can you help me can you give me advice and I had lots of good advice and I had work experience from it and that's what you know I encourage people to do now is just show it I've been a cheek chance your arm ask for help and often you know people will help and you know people like to be helpful and to give advice and don't stop asking for help either keep asking for help and then pay back you know I think you're a responsibility then to seek out opportunities to help other people. Good advice we've received lots of interesting questions from pupils that they would like us to put to our guests some about video questions and others I'll be asking on their behalf so let's get started on those then. The first question it's to the first minister and it's a question from Karris. What is the most important skill you use in your job? I think the most important skill in the job I do is listening. I spend a lot of my time in meetings and what we used to call when I used to teach people to be social workers is what's called active listening. I don't mean to sort of sit in back in listening I mean being part of the conversation by listening listening carefully to what other people are saying. Check in with yourself whether you've understood what they're saying you know I do a lot of meetings with very expert people like the chief medical officer you know I ask myself am I sure I've understood what he's telling me because he is an expert and he's having to translate it into words that somebody like you know like I can understand. Am I learning something from what I'm hearing? How are what I'm hearing helped me to make the decision that I know that I'm going to have to try and make it the end of all of this? So I think in meetings which I do a lot of listening is more important than talking and if you listen in that active way then that's a skill that you can put to really good use. Here's a question for Ashley Davis. What motivates you to get up for work on a Monday morning? I think there's two answers to this because getting up for work on a Monday morning in the middle of July is very different to getting up for work on a Monday morning in the middle of January and I think if you've got when when I get up for work in the morning if I know I've got a really good project to work on and I've got lots of stuff to do I feel really motivated to get up if I know that I've got you know meetings with people in work where we're going to you know discuss new innovations new things in the industry that gets me up for work if I know that I can if I'm going to be going in and able to plug my earphones in and just plough through a really big task and get a lot done that motivates me for work seeing the people who I work with because you know a lot of a lot of where I work is about the people that I work with and that helps you to get out of bed in the middle of winter and this is probably the wrong answer it's food it's snowing oh I'm going to make myself a good breakfast or I'm going to take a decent lunch into work today and knowing that you know it's going to be a cold come out but once you're in and everyone's there and you will sort of muck in together that I like I like the environment that I work in and I think that's probably the the biggest thing that encourages me to go into work on a Monday morning and that's if I haven't got uni because on a uni day it's a very different sort of motivation because it's a lot more self motivation rather than work motivation on that front it'd be good to know how everybody would answer the next couple of questions. If you weren't doing this job now what else do you think you would be doing? Alison what about you? Well I would probably whether I'd still be there I don't know but I probably would have joined the police force because when I as I left university I'd made an application to the police force and to have been accepted through the stages yeah so yeah I think I would have been in the police force. Lee Waters what about you? Well I was doing some normal jobs and I ruined it all by going into politics so I'm probably doing what I was doing before which is running smaller organisations and leading teams like that's what I really like I love working in the team building a team of people all with different skills coming together and picking what we can do as one big team and politics quite worked like that in the same way and I missed that a bit so that's what I probably be doing. First Minister what do you think you would be doing? Well I guess the same as Lee you know because before I came to do the job I did now I used to teach in the university here in Cardiff and again I was very lucky because it's a job I love doing I love being with young people you've got to be a bit of a show-off to be a politician and you've got to be a bit of a show-off to be a lecturer as well standing up in front of people and you know doing all of that I liked all of that I used to be able to write you know part of the job in university is to write and I used to enjoy the chance to do that as well so if I wasn't doing what I do now I would have been very happy to have carried on in the job that I was doing for all the reasons that that I've just said. And Ashley what about you would you have gone down that pop star route or not? I think if I had to so I'm 21 so I would probably still be in university but I think I would have gone and studied environmental science had I not done engineering because I think climate change is something massive that my generation will face and I think that's something where I feel like could have made really really made a difference. Here's another interesting one um do you think things are different for young people now and do you think you would make different choices if you were in school today? Lee Waters. Oh gosh well things are always different the context we live in in every generation things are fundamentally the same no I think I think making different choices is a really good one and this is something I thought a lot about because when you know especially when you're in school when you're going to take option and you're going to decide to go to further education or higher education and you take a job but at every point you're put in front of a crossroad and there is no right or wrong answer and sometimes you're just going to hold your nose and just pick one and it's always tempting to look back and think what would have happened if I'd done that and not this and that this has happened to me a few times and this is a poem by Robert Frost called The Path Not Taken and it talks about the taking the path less travelled by and I've always had that poem in mind when I faced these choices I've always chosen the path less travelled by but also importantly I haven't second guessed in my mind if I take the right one because it's impossible you're just going to pick one go for it and if you don't like it do something else you know these things aren't set in stone forever but don't torture yourself by second guessing listen to your instinct in your heart and give it a crack and Alison do you think things are much different now to when you were in school? I think things are different as I said I think you know the digital world has changed a lot of things even you know if I compare to when I was in school and you know kind of having my first mobile phone now you know Youngsters that's all they look at and so I think there's a lot more pressure on young people these days and I think there's this unrealistic world you know I was brought up in a generation of you know you kind of like Lisa said you kind of you get out to what you put in and where you work hard you know you put the time and effort in and yet there's almost a culture today of you know the commodities and you know the kind of these these influencers and instagram influencers and different things and I think that paints quite an unrealistic picture for young people that you know perhaps you don't have to work hard you can you know go down this road and do these types of things and it's very you know unrealistic so I think that that does make things harder for young people these days there's quite a lot of unrealistic kind of parts to society and so yeah I think it can be more difficult but again I think for young people it's again about focusing on them and having confidence in themselves and their ability really. Okay Lee Waters Harry's question is for you. Did you have a part-time job in school or at university? Yeah I was a newspaper boy from the age of 11 till I was 16 and I used to deliver the south Wales evening post and I used to have to get my own customers and have to put the orders in and send any returns back and try and build my own so that's what I did when I was in school and I worked in a video shop don't exist anymore they've been digitally disrupted Netflix has killed the video shop but there was such things as video shops when I was a teenager so I worked there I didn't I was lucky not to work in the university I had a a grant which paid for my rent I had a very sort of frugal lifestyle I didn't spend very much money because I wanted to go and see my girlfriend on the weekend who's in Cardiff now my wife and do my studies in the week so I was a bit boring really but I meant that I didn't need to have a job which was very fortunate. Ashley Franke would like to know what advice would you give to a year seven people starting their school journey? I would say be a sponge be curious ask all the questions don't be afraid to you know ask your teachers things in a respectful way if you disagree with something that's fine just be respectful about it you can you don't have to be nasty or rude to ask questions be kind to the people who you're in your group with because you're with them for the next five years so make friends but focus on not making enemies as much as trying to make friends and join all the clubs see what you enjoy and don't care about what other people's opinions are of those clubs because it doesn't matter if you're having a good time. What great advice? First Minister Isabel she's in your rate and she'd like to know what is the favourite part of your job? Oh people is the best part of my job the fact that no day is ever the same as the one before and every day is about meeting people and learning from them. I remember one of my predecessors Rodri Morgan who I worked a lot with saying to me that he'd never met anybody who didn't know more about something than he did and that you know if you're in a conversation with somebody try and find out what they know about because it'll be interesting and they'll know more than you do and lots of what I do is about learning from other people hearing things that they know that I don't and it's a it's a fantastic part of the job that I do and I think we've done a bit of a theme in what everybody has said isn't it is that working hard at getting on with other people and enjoying being with other people and learning from other people if you can do that then you'll enjoy a lot of what you do. Alison Justina has sent this question in and she'd like to know what's the biggest achievement you've accomplished in your time in your job? It's probably the the current job that I'm in now as head of income generation and marketing for a very small hospice. When I started there four years ago the role was was a new role that had been created because they recognised they needed to drive income forward so it was it was a new challenge for me. I'd previously worked at THAV and Children's Hospice and loved my job. They had managed a lovely team but I'd felt a bit likely to talked about I'd kind of stopped learning and so this this was a brand new challenge for me but still working you know with a cause that was very close to my heart in terms of hospice care and I came into the role and kind of sleeves rolled up you know right let's get on with it and it was it was really tricky. A team of just two who'd been there a long time I think themselves become a bit stagnant and complacent and didn't really have that drive and ambition anymore and so I had to set out a strategic plan of how I was going to grow income for the organisation and I had to restructure the team but obviously had to work with these people like to performance manage which was difficult because you're dealing with people and you know it's very tricky but again you know there was this goal that we had to achieve and move forward with raising more money and in that four years I'm quite happy to say and pleased and proud to say that that I've been able with the support of now a fantastic team to generate 20% more income over that period and I think certainly the last 12 months has been exceptionally trying but it's been a fantastic challenge and testament really to having a good team in place of people where we all support each other and you know we know we're making a difference in the local community so I think the biggest achievement for me has been able to make that impact and know that that impact is making a difference to people's lives. I know time is rushing on just a quick answer then Alison Miaw wanted to know how do you think career choice decisions for the future generations might be different? Oh I think there's a bit like Lee said earlier that you know there's jobs that existed 30 years ago that don't exist now and you know it's an ever-changing world and I think technology and certainly probably the last 12 months in terms of you know lots of things becoming more online and digital and people working from home has kind of made a difference but again in terms of career choices I think it's harping back to what we've all talked about this afternoon. I think it's about people choosing careers or choosing you know subjects that they enjoy that they're happy to win that they're good at and hopefully that will lead them into a career that works for them and if it doesn't then you know nothing is set in stone and has to be and you know there is always that opportunity to move on to something else really. One final question then and really a quick fire answer from all of you maybe starting with Ashley Jack wanted to know what's your favourite memory of school? So when I was in year 11 and they just opened the sixth phone college in Murthes year 11 was the highest year group and every year when children in need came around there was this big talent show that was held and when I was in year seven I remember walking in and they ran the show three times over the course of the day for all the year groups and I thought whoa this is awesome I can't wait to have to plan this and then I got year 11 and I was on the senior team with a few of my other friends and I thought oh my gosh we have to plan this and it has to be fantastic and it has to be just as good and funny as it has been every other year and it was a lot of pressure but we pulled it off we had two boys come out and um and dance to let's get ready to rumble just after Anton Deck had done the revamp of the song we had a load of boys in our year group go on stage in Leotards and dance to single ladies it was awesome we had so many different people who were you know sort of embarrassed of doing that sort of thing out on stage and really really enjoying it and everyone thought it was really good that I was just so proud that we'd managed to pull something together like that and that it went down so well and leave what is your favourite memory I got lots of memories really and was the involvement of laughing and doing creative things so taking taking part in the school play or doing a sketch our school newspaper so it's an extracurricular activity interestingly so the stuff I did on the side and first minister have you got a favourite memory from kiwi hi uh playing music that will be mine as well not not anything to do with the classroom but just uh with a group of other people all interested in playing music all doing something together in that collective way that you all get something up to it and yeah if I think of one thing that I look back on I think what did that school give me uh it was the chance to to play music and to enjoy it with other people and the last word Alison with you very similar um being part of a team um you know through different sport um going away representing the school um overseas with sport and just being with a group of of like-minded friends really and feeling part of something well can I thank you all very much for joining us today and sharing your experiences of school and your career pathways and thank you too to the teachers and the pupils who sent in the questions that we were able to put to our guests I think it's clear that an alumni community will have a wealth of different career stories that will be of interest to pupils in school now whether they had a clear idea of what they want to do it's from an early age no idea at all or it changed careers along the way thank you all for watching