PUPILS from a school got a taste of future careers.

Year 10 pupils at Fearns Community Sports College, Stacksteads, spent time out of school to try a variety of different vocations as part of work experience

This included the planning department of Rossendale Council and a solicitor’s office.

Kalumn Ridgway, 15, said he hopes to go into the RAF after A levels and joined the council planning department where he said he learnt organisational skills.

He said: “I did some copying and also went out on site visits to assess planning applications. I helped out assessing the risks and I identified that part of a proposed extension was going too far out.”

The legal world beckoned for Amy Evans, 15, who joined Winter Solicitors in Bacup.

She said: “I am thinking about studying criminal psychology and solicitor Ruth Winter was really nice and friendly. I got to file and learn and understand more about cases.”

Sports Leader Lizzie Mawson, 15, had a hectic week helping Nathan Bibby from Rossendale Schools Sports Partnership to arrange primary school sporting competitions in netball, cricket, gymnastics and golf.

She said: “I learnt to use my own initiative, because when Mr Bibby was busy, I had to work out what needed to be done."

Meanwhile John Westwell, 15, learnt more about a traditional trade of plumbing when he joined Stanley Jacks in Bacup.

Careers co-ordinator Katherine Bollard-Wilkes went to visit the pupils at their chosen places of work during the course of the week.

She said: “This is an invaluable experience for them and will hopefully give them a boost to achieve now they have had a taste of what is to come when they leave Fearns in just over a year.”