Pupils at a Workington school had a chance to find out about prospective careers at an event.

Workington Academy held its first World of Work day on Wednesday.

Year 11 children took part in activities such as speed interviews with local employers and team building exercises, and heard talks about apprenticeships.

Businesses such as Sellafield, Gen2, Impact, Iggesund and the county council led 10-minute interviews with children.

Tracey Hill, of the school, said: "After doing a survey we found out that a quarter of the students didn't know what they wanted to do next year.

"We decided to bring in local businesses in to talk to them and help them find out what careers are available in the area.

"There's a lot more locally than just engineering. People have a choice of career here in Cumbria.
"After the event we'll do another survey and those pupils who still don't know what they want to do will work with Inspira so every single student will leave school with a destination.

"Some students don't feel ready for sixth form, for example, but their results say they are.

"We want to raise their aspirations and help build their confidence."

Jennie Garroway, of Inspira, led team building exercises and introduced pupils to the National Citizenship Service.

She said: "The activities we do are aimed at learning skills in a fun way.

"With the team building exercises, we give students a task and they are given the time to think about how to go about completing it.
"We then give them feedback on things such as their communication skills."