King Ethel­bert School enjoyed a VIP visit from the Edu­ca­tion and Child­care Min­is­ter, Eliz­a­beth Truss and local MPs Roger Gale and Laura Sandys, who went to dis­cover the impact that the IBcc Study Pro­gramme has had on their students.

The school runs the Inter­na­tional Bac­calau­re­ate Careers Related Cer­tifi­cate (IBcc) in the 6th form which com­bines aca­d­e­mic and voca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tions within an inno­v­a­tive frame­work. Ms Truss, Ms Sandys and Mr Gale spoke to both cur­rent and past stu­dents about the life chang­ing impact that study­ing the IBcc has had on their aspi­ra­tions, des­ti­na­tions and careers related life skills.

The Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter lis­tened and ques­tioned stu­dents with inter­est and told them how impressed she was with their con­fi­dence, pas­sion and clar­ity when they spoke about their IBcc jour­ney. Year 13 stu­dent Ben Lam­bert took the oppor­tu­nity to ask Ms Truss about the lim­ited num­ber of level 4 Appren­tice­ships avail­able to school leavers with excep­tional qualifications.

Local MPs Mr Gale and Ms Sandys com­pli­mented stu­dents on their pre­sen­ta­tions, express­ing their sup­port for the IBcc Qual­i­fi­ca­tion and Pro­gramme and invited King Ethel­bert Sixth Form stu­dents to visit Par­lia­ment and talk fur­ther about their experiences