A Stable Careers Programme
Every school, special school, college or provider should have an embedded programme of careers education and guidance that is known and understood by learners, parents and carers, staff, governors, employers and other agencies.
What good looks like
- Every school, special school, college and provider should have a stable, structured careers programme that has the explicit backing of governors, the headteacher and the senior management team, and has an identified and appropriately trained Careers Leader responsible for it.
- The careers programme should be tailored to the needs of learners, sequenced appropriately, underpinned by learning outcomes and linked to the whole-school development plan. It should also set out how parents and carers will be engaged throughout.
- The careers programme should be published on the school, special school, college and provider's website and communicated in ways that enable learners, parents and carers, staff and employers to access and understand it.
- The programme should be regularly evaluated using feedback from learners, parents and carers, teachers and other staff who support learners, Careers Advisers and employers to increase its impact.
The resources below are designed to support you with Gatsby Benchmark 1. To explore all of the Gatsby Benchmarks in greater depth, download the toolkit that best aligns with your setting.
Funded Careers Leader training via The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) supports with accelerated and meaningful achievement of the Gatsby Benchmarks
Develop a Strategic Careers Plan to ensure that the careers programme has clear backing from the leadership team and integrate into the institutions broader development plan, aligning it with key goals and priorities to give it the necessary authority and resources. Access the Understanding how to create a Strategic Careers Plan resource to support with this.
Develop a careers programme that is responsive to learner needs, with provision sequenced progressively and underpinned by learning outcomes. Access the Understanding how to develop progressive and responsive careers provision (Careers Learning Journeys) resource to support with this.
Make sure everyone knows which way you’re heading – ensure all stakeholders understand your careers programme by using these careers learner journey roadmap templates to present it in a visual way
Gather input from learners, parents and carers, teachers, other staff, Careers Advisers and employers on how well the careers programme is working. Use the CEC guidance on survey creation and access the survey template resources to easily capture stakeholder feedback. Review the feedback and data to continuously improve the careers programme. Access the Understanding how to effectively evaluate your careers provision resource to support with this.
Support headteachers, senior leaders and governors to understand the strategic value of careers provision. Get started today with your Careers impact internal leadership review.
Use the handy Parental Engagement Checklist as a guide to establish and maintain effective parental engagement in your setting. You can effectively record parental engagement in Compass+. Read this Help Centre article to find out how.
Ensure that the Careers Leader and all other relevant staff, including SEND teams, access the free training offer from the CEC.
Education Leaders and Governors:
Education Leaders and Governors: For further information on each Benchmark, to support you in your role, please see the Education Leader, Secondary and College Governor Guides.
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CDI Framework
The CDI’s Career Development Framework describes the six career development skills that people need to have positive careers.
CDI quality assurance of career development interventions
This framework will help career development professionals to quality assure their career development interventions and determine any areas that may require development.
Central Strategic Careers Leadership (CSCL): Developing approaches to the strategic leadership of careers across trust
This guide explores how the role of the Central Strategic Careers Leader is emerging within trusts, the value of the work on careers within trusts, the value of collaborative working between trusts and Careers Hubs, and employers across the various regions.
Collecting Intended Destinations
Find out why collecting destination data is so important, and learn about some effective methods Careers Leaders use to capture this information.
Compass Evaluation
The Compass evaluation has been updated in response to the updated Gatsby Benchmarks and statutory guidance.
Destination data procedure – Shuttleworth College
Use this example to plan out how to collect data, follow the correct procedures, and analyse and report on the destination data itself.
Destination STEM Teacher Handbook Building Careers Awareness with Young People
Destination STEM is a NEW dedicated STEM careers website for 13-19-year-olds curious to explore exceptional opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), boost their skills, and hear from industry experts.
DPD Core Values
This resource developed by DPD is part of the My Skills My Future programme and is aimed at SEND group 1 young people.
Dream Job
This resource has been collated by Green Corridor College to support understanding around jobs for young people in SEND group 1 and is part of the My Skills My Future programme.
East Sussex Careers Hub SEND resources
On this page you will find resources developed by the East Sussex Careers Hub to support people working with young people with SEND. Some of these are featured as content in the My Skills My Future programme.
Educate the Educators
Tees Valley Careers Hub organised industry insight days for teachers, aligned with the region’s key growth sectors, to help them explore how their subject areas connect to real-world careers and industry demands. A suite of supporting resources is available.
Engaging education leaders in the internal leadership review process
If you are looking to understand why you should take part in an internal leadership review, or you are supporting education leaders and senior staff to engage with the process, this collection of resources will help you get started and ensure the experience is purposeful and impactful.