On Tuesday 16th November the Economics Department held the Economics Breakfast Forum. This event provided an opportunity for Year 12 and 13 students to hear from alumnae about what career paths an Economics degree can lead to and their thoughts on topical economic issues. The panel included alumnae Vern Wheeler (Bank of England), Gowsi Sriskantharajah (BEIS), Rosie Colthorpe (OBR) and Lucy Moss (audit KPMG).

The panel all spoke brilliantly and passionately about their experience of studying economics related degrees at university. This included the variety of different modules on offer for undergraduates, the perks of combining it with a language and a year abroad, along with the feeling that you were studying a subject that was going to equip you with the knowledge and skills to be able to make meaningful change.  It was extremely interesting to hear about the different career paths the alumnae  had taken and to find out more about what their current roles involve and how they have changed due to the nature of the pandemic.

With a panel of such experts we couldn’t resist asking questions on a range of current economic issues facing our society today. It is difficult to avoid COVID when discussing the current state of the UK economy and it was amazing to be able to hear in more detail about the role of the Bank of England in assisting economic growth. Environmental economics is also being widely talked about, especially due to the recent COP26 conference, and it was interesting to hear the panel talk about what their current employers are doing to help address climate change at both a policy level and operationally. The impact of BREXIT was also discussed with several of the alumnae informing us of how their research and work had been published in newspapers such as the Financial Times. Another hot topic was cryptocurrency and how it could potentially disrupt financial markets and whether the alumnae felt it would ever replace normal currencies. 

The Sixth Form students asked some fantastic questions and came away with lots to think about. We look forward to being able to run similar events in the future and continue to discuss topical economic issues at the NHEHS Economics Society. A huge thank you to our knowledgeable and engaging alumnae who gave their time to come back to speak to current NHEHS students.