careers guidance Archives - Page 3 of 3 - North East Local Enterprise Partnership

This week, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) published a report into the importance of lifelong learning in our modern economy.

They’ve entitled it ‘An upskill battle’, which perfectly encapsulates the challenge we face as we respond to an ever-changing sector and skills landscape, and as we work to develop a more competitive economy for the North East.

The very nature of this challenge – particularly around technology, digitalisation and innovation – is that the landscape will continue to evolve and change. It is indeed an uphill battle. So how do we plan and prepare for a future that could change the very moment we think we’ve caught up with it?

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership has been working for some time now – with employers, training providers, schools, colleges and other partners – to explore these challenges and keep them at the top of the agenda when it comes to future planning around employability and skills in the region.

And as highlighted by the CBI in their report, lifelong adult education and careers guidance need to be a fundamental part of the solution.

The demands of today’s global, digitally-driven economy require a broader, more agile skillset than ever before. It’s a fast-moving landscape that waits for no-one. Employers and government need to recognise this quickly and work together to make sure that people can access the training and support they need to remain productive throughout their working lives.

Employers need to build training and skills development into their business models, and government needs to ensure that training is accessible and affordable for those who need to pay for it themselves.

We also agree with the CBI that we need to extend careers guidance beyond 19 and abandon the idea that teachers can equip young people with all the knowledge they need at the start.

Instead, we need to think about careers guidance as a journey from primary-age to retirement, and this is particularly important for those who experience loss of work or whose skills face becoming obsolete.

If we can put the right support, guidance and training opportunities in place in our region, we can revive, revitalise and extend working lives and create a workforce that’s adaptable and ready to take on whatever the future economy may throw at us.

An important part of this will be around supporting people to understand how they can map and transfer their strengths, skills and knowledge from one role to another throughout their career.

That’s why we particularly support the CBI’s suggestion that government should look to develop a nationally recognised skills ‘passporting’ tool as part of the National Retraining Scheme, so that informal training and skills are taken into account when looking for future employment. The Department for Education’s Get Help to Retrain scheme, piloted in the North East, is a good step towards this, supporting people to map their current skills and signposting opportunities.

This CBI report highlights some very stark realities; people will typically work up to twenty years longer than their parents, well into their 70s, meaning the growing need for adult education and a shift towards a lifelong learning culture is critical.

Working into our 70s and beyond is a challenge that many of us will personally face. The time to plan for that future, is now.

Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director, North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

Newcastle College is the North East’s largest college, with more than 16,000 students. It is also part of Newcastle College Group (NCG) – one of the largest not-for-profit education and training groups in the UK, made up of seven colleges.

The college is supported by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s North East Ambition programme, which helps every secondary school and college in the region towards achieving the government’s Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks.

In just 12 months, the college has successfully improved the coherence and visibility of careers guidance across the whole organisation.

A dedicated Careers Portal is now prominent on the college website and every newly-enrolled student receives a clear and user-friendly Skills and Careers Programme Plan.

More than 5,000 16 to 18-year-old students, including apprentices, received this during their induction activities at the start of their qualifications this year.

Ronnie Burn, Head of Student Services and Careers Leader at Newcastle College, explains how they achieved this success, including the challenges they have navigated along the way:

Supporting the progression and next steps for our students was always at the very heart of our work. We set out to create a plan that could and would be embedded at a college-wide level, to ensure that all our students would be fully aware of our careers guidance and curriculum offer and could make informed decisions for themselves, at every opportunity.

One of our primary goals was to ensure that ownership and responsibility of careers guidance within the college is a key feature for each and every staff member.

We started our journey by completing North East Ambition’s benchmarks audit tool. We also used the Careers and Enterprise Company’s Compass assessment tool.

Doing all of this gave us a great starting point for creating a three-year action plan.

What we did next

Through North East Ambition, we were given the opportunity to join the country’s only regional College Hub, and this gave us many opportunities to consult on best practice models, drawing from career guidance peers from across the region.

The external evolution of careers guidance development work over the last two years, both nationally and regionally, has provided a network to share and test new thinking in developing working career guidance models that operationally fit with the college.

One of our priorities was to identify those colleagues with a responsibility for the provision of careers guidance from across the college, and ensure they were included in the planning from the start.

We consulted right across the college to gain feedback on the first edition of the Skills and Careers Programme Plan, and this included discussions with NCG Executive Directors, members of the college Principalship Team, college Directors, Heads of Curriculum and Service Managers, the Quality Team, Central Support staff and Marketing services.

The impact of this has been that our plan reflects a number of aspects of curriculum content delivery and developing practice.

These include the development of ‘schemes of learning’ incorporating the skills, knowledge and behaviours required in the context of a job role, as well as a focus on the relevance of English and Maths.

The process has also helped us to look at the expectations around work experience and engagement with employers, which has resulted in us developing the role of Enterprise Advisors by curriculum area.

Our continuing collaborative work with staff ensures that our next Skills and Careers Programme Plan aligns with the quality assurance cycle and the student journey, becoming a natural development within the business planning process.

Initial indications suggest we’ve achieved positive reinforcement of careers guidance from all staff and students across the college.

Our biggest challenges

Our biggest challenges have been around developing a sustainable model that is embedded across the college and is accessible to all.

What we learned

It was vital to involve colleagues from across the college, to ensure that responsibility and accountability was transparent. We scheduled fortnightly meetings with curriculum directors and managers to promote the context of the plan and embed this into the business planning process.

Top takeaways

Acknowledge the diversity and social mobility of your students and recognise that ‘one size does not fit all’, so build flexibility into your programme.

Early buy-in and agreement from senior leaders provides a springboard for the careers leader to accelerate action plans.

Visit Newcastle College’s careers portal at ncl-coll.ac.uk/careers

Read the latest Skills and Careers Programme Plan for 2019/20

Find out more about North East Ambition at northeastambition.co.uk

Students and teachers at Newcastle’s Excelsior Academy have been using applied learning to strengthen the links between schools and employers.

Holly Knox, Assistant Principal of Hadrian School at Excelsior Academy, talks about the school’s recent visit to the Port of Blyth and how it has helped students to apply classroom learning to real life.

We took two groups of our year 7 and 8 pupils to The Port of Blyth as part of their current project about renewable energy. The pupils have been focusing on the themes of renewable energy and climate change, and this visit to the Port of Blyth helped them to see some real-life applications of what they’ve been learning as well as being an opportunity to find out about STEM careers in the energy sector, which is one of the main growth sectors in the region.

Although we’re based in Newcastle, just a few miles from the sea, some of our pupils had never been to the coast before and many of them didn’t know that renewable energy equipment like wind turbines are developed and tested here in the North East. We wanted our students to be able to see for themselves how the North East plays a key part in the renewable energy sector, to find out about the different people who work in the sector, and to think about their own futures and the types of careers they might be interested in.

On the day, we had a tour of the Port, met people who worked in different jobs within the organisation, and we were able to see the technology and machinery in action, including the equipment which is used to dig the trench for the cable that stretches along the seabed all the way from Blyth to Norway. We also completed a hands-on challenge where pupils built their own mini wind turbines and competed to see which group could generate the highest voltage.

They came away enthused and excited about what they’d found out, and absolutely buzzing about what they achieved in building the mini turbines. The visit really inspired them and some of the equipment they saw in action was beyond anything they’d imagined.

Everything we did on the day linked with what we’ve been teaching in the classroom and back at school, the students are continuing to talk about what they learnt on their visit and connecting what they’ve seen with what they’re learning. Every day they are asking questions linked to the visit and we’re reflecting together on what we saw and heard, and what we now know about renewable energy in the North East.

It really was quite empowering for both the pupils and the staff involved and we will be repeating this project with our next cohort of students and we hope to build on this connection we now have with the Port of Blyth.

Holly Knox, Assistant Principal of Hadrian School at Excelsior Academy.

Excelsior Academy is one of three North East schools taking part in a pilot of project based learning.

Project based learning is designed to make learning in the classroom relevant to the world of work, embed careers information into the curriculum and equip young people with skills for 21st century careers.

It is part of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Education Challenge and delivered in partnership with Edge Future Learning. It draws on a model developed by Ford Next Generation Learning in United States who are sharing their experience and expertise.

Find out more about the Education Challenge programme.

A group of parents and students from two North East schools have spent the day visiting Newcastle College Energy Academy in North Tyneside and businesses at the Port of Blyth in Northumberland, meeting people who work in the energy sector and finding out about some of the different career paths open to them.

The day was part of the North East Energy Safari, organised by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which aims to help both parents and students find out about the varied career opportunities within the energy sector in the region.

Tom Gallon, Industry Alignment Support Officer at the North East LEP, said: “One of the aims of the day was to ensure that parents as well as their children understand some of the new opportunities across the North East, particularly in the energy sector, where these jobs weren’t necessarily here five years ago.”

“It’s really important that we had both parents and students there, because parents are still the primary influencers and if they can see those amazing opportunities they’re going to support their child fully, and ensure that everyone has that equality of opportunity.”

After the visit, Luke, a year 9 pupil, commented: “It’s a lot easier when we go to the places because you can have a look at exactly what they’re doing and the environment that they work in, so it’s preparing me for when and if I do go into that job.”

Parents who attended on the day said: “Today’s been really informative, we found out so much more about the career paths for our kids, not just university or academic learning.”

“We didn’t realise how much was going on in the energy sector and it’s actually quite surprising how much is available for both males and females to do.”

Watch this short film of the day to hear more from some of the parents, pupils and employers who took part:

This event was part of the North East LEP’s Education Challenge programme, which aims to reduce the gap between the North East’s best and lowest performing schools and to integrate an understanding of the world of work and career opportunities into the curriculum.

Find out more about the Education Challenge programme.

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has worked with local employers and Berwick Academy in Northumberland to give year 9 pupils at the school a flavour of the different types of careers which exist within the North East’s thriving energy sector.

Explaining why the event took place, Neil Willis, Regional Lead: Education Challenge at the North East LEP, said: “Berwick is an amazing part of the country. It’s a beautiful rural, coastal area, but that means that it’s sometimes difficult for students to have those meaningful encounters with employers. Within a short distance of here there are many opportunities within the energy sector, which is one of our growth sectors.”

Businesses including EDF Energy and Northern Gas Networks attended the event to help students learn about some of the opportunities in the North East energy sector, through hands-on activities and workshops.

One of the students who attended the event said: “I didn’t know that engineering wasn’t just building bridges and designing buildings It’s actually got loads of different applications like design, production, scheduling and all the different jobs that I wouldn’t have assumed you could get within that sector.”

Watch our two minute video to hear from staff and pupils at the school and find out more about the event.

Find out more about the North East LEP’s Skills programmes.

Following a successful pilot programme to improve standards of careers education in all North East secondary schools, the North East LEP is expanding its work to focus on primary pupils, helping to broaden their horizons and raise their aspirations.

Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director at the North East LEP, explains more.

We know that even at the young age of three or four, children are already starting to form their first aspirations. By six they are starting to have opinions on what they think they can or can’t do in the future. And by the time they’re 10, young people start to make decisions which could go on to limit their future options.

This is why we are embarking on a programme of work in partnership with North East primary schools to strengthen careers guidance for pupils and help open their eyes to the range of possibilities their futures hold.

Back in 2015, the North East became the first UK region to pilot the implementation of the Gatsby Good Career Benchmarks in our secondary schools. We began by working with 16 schools and colleges before rolling out the programme to the entire region, and now we are expanding this work to encompass our primary schools as well.

The work we will be doing in partnership with schools across the North East will help us to make sure that all children, from primary age upwards, have the best possible guidance to help them understand the exciting opportunities that are open to them as they grow up.

It’s not about children choosing their future jobs at this very young age. It’s about helping our children and young people to have ambitions and aspirations for themselves, helping them to learn about the variety of jobs open to them and the fantastic range of opportunities we have in the region, and to gain a broad understanding of the routes to get into work including apprenticeships and further and higher education

From early 2019 we will be working with around 70 primary schools to pilot the use of the Career Guidance Benchmarks in a primary setting. The benchmarks have proven to have a transformational impact on careers guidance for slightly older students, forming a framework which enables schools to strengthen links with local businesses and provide top quality careers guidance for each and every pupil. Following our secondary schools pilot and the subsequent wider roll-out, the Government adopted the benchmarks as part of the national Careers Strategy and the North East is now playing a key role in supporting schools across the country to adopt the benchmarks.

For the primary pilot, we will be partnering with schools in different locations, of different sizes and with varying OFSTED ratings so we can really test how best to apply the framework to primaries.

We know that many primary schools are already doing great work in the area of careers guidance and one of the aims of this programme will be to build a community of best practice and facilitate the sharing of challenges and solutions.

Similarly, we will build on the work of the many employers currently supporting teachers and leadership teams in primary schools to bring careers to life for pupils.

We’ve had a fantastic response from schools wanting to be involved in the pilot and there is still time for more schools to get involved. We’d love to hear from any who are interested in working with us to raise the aspirations of the next generation.

The North East Primary Benchmark pilot is part of the North East LEP’s North East Ambition – a programme which aims to improve career guidance and advice from primary school upwards in the North East.

If you have any further questions about this article, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

Tag: careers guidance

Planning for our region’s ‘upskill battle’

Bringing careers strategy into reality, and into life

Newcastle pupils partner with Port of Blyth to put learning into action

Parents and students get a taste of careers in the energy sector

Bringing the North East energy sector into the classroom

Careers guidance in primary schools – can we raise our children’s aspirations?