COMMUNITY REPORT 2018–20
Community Programme

Careers

Providing a lifetime of careers advice and guidance for students and OWs.

A major aspect of the work of the Community Office is to support the students while they are at College as well as for the years after, particularly with the transition from university to the world of work. We deliver this work in two main ways; the ‘Life beyond Wellington’ programme and Wellington Connect our global professional networking site.

We have been providing face to face networking and careers advice for many years but in recent times we have pulled this work together under the banner of Life beyond Wellington (LBW).

This programme is more relevant than ever, as it’s a programme that aims to equip students with the skills and understanding about the ‘real’ world so they can shape what they do at College with an eye on their life beyond their time at Wellington.

For students and young OWs the many different networking sessions are insightful and inspirational as they begin to make their transition from College, to university into the working world and beyond. More can be found out about the Life Beyond Wellington programme by watching the first video.

Life Beyond Wellington
A series of events with the aim of equipping students for the 'real' world
Wellington Connect
Our professional (and social) networking platform with over 4,500 members
The Wellington Community
An introduction to our thriving global community of over 30,000 people and the programmes it provides

The full LBW programme includes the following activity;

– Face to face careers speed-networking for students
– Online talks and webinars
– Annual careers fair for 6th form
– Professional networking events in London (or online) for students, OWs and parents
– Career Opportunity Groups (COGs) for students and OWs

You can watch previous Life Beyond Wellington sessions as well as find out information about the term’s upcoming sessions here: go to Life Beyond Wellington.

The power of ‘Welly Connect’

All of the face to face networking and careers advice delivered under the ‘Life beyond Wellington’ programme is backed up by our online platform Wellington Connect which is an extraordinary professional networking platform for 6th formers, OWs and parents.

Through the platform students and OWs can reach out for advice, work experience, help with CV and much more – currently there are nearly 5,000 parents and OWs offering mentoring and guidance. Visit Wellington Connect here.

The networth growth of Welly Connect since launch in 2016

 

How the Wellington Community is made up



Social

Each term we run a varied and exciting range of events, our aim is to provide a meaningful programme of cultural, social, educational, business and careers events so we hope that we really have got something for everyone.

We are very proud to celebrate that we have an action packed and vibrant programme and have celebrated a wide range of OW reunions, University Gatherings up and down the country, our annual Community Ice Skating event, OW meet ups in New York, Singapore and Hong Kong, a number of exciting Career Networking events, Parent Wine Evenings, the annual Entrepreneurs Exchange, Book Clubs and much more. It has been wonderful seeing so many of you involved and attending these events and we hope you have enjoyed them as much as we have.

Despite COVID-19 putting a stop to many of our events we had planned for 2020, we have managed to transition into the virtual world and we are delighted we have been able to continue with many events online. We welcomed our new parents with a number of Welcome Zoom sessions, caught up with our parent Community in Hong Kong, ran a series of Zoom sessions looking back at Wellington’s fascinating history and the people who have made it so interesting, including our popular ‘An Evening with Potts’ three part series, our ‘Teaching through the Decades’ series and ‘Tales from the Archives’ podcasts, hosted by our Archivist Caroline Jones. We also launched our Life Beyond Wellington programme.

Parent ‘Call My Bluff’ Wine Evening February 2020 / Entrepreneur’s Exchange March 2019


2019-2020 Community Social Events Programme Breakdown

Michaelmas and Lent Terms 2019-2020

 

Summer Term and Michaelmas 2020

Please note that these figures may appear different to the last Community Report due to having to adjust to a ‘normal for now’ way of working i.e., Events moved to an online basis from the week commencing 23rd March 2020.

 


Heritage

We have continued to host our termly Heritage Day over the past couple of years, these have consisted of historic tours of the College and ‘Tales from the Archive’ talks by Wellington Archivist Caroline Jones.

These events have been extremely well attended by the wider Wellington Community and over this past year and since Covid-19 we have developed an interesting and insightful series of online events which look back at Wellington’s rich and fascinating history, these have included the following:

‘An Evening with Potts’

Chris Potter (C 65) arrived at Wellington in 1947 and more than 70 years later he remains at the heart of the Wellington Community. Nobody knows Wellington quite like Chris Potter and over three fun and informal chats Chris talks us through his memories of Wellington. You can watch the three-part series here.

‘Teaching through the Decades’

Chris Potter (C 65) and Wellington’s Archivist, Caroline Jones, talk to members of the Common Room from each decade, listening to their stories and memories of their time at Wellington and how things have changed over the years. So far, we have held talks with members of the Common Room from the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s and we will be continuing this fun and interesting series this year. You can watch it back here.

‘Tales from the Archives’ podcasts

Caroline Jones has recorded a series of fascinating podcasts covering topics from the great fire at Wellington, the history of Speech Day and much more. Listen to the full series here.

A rehearsal by the College dramatic society, the Gravediggers, is captured in this evocative drawing by Bryan de Grineau from 1952 / ‘Jallies’ serving food in the College hall in the 1950s