Tag: Skills

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North East LEP welcomes Careers Strategy and celebrates Gatsby Career Benchmarks success

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has today welcomed the news that the Government’s new Careers Strategy will centre around the eight Gatsby Good Career Guidance Benchmarks piloted here in the North East.

In September 2015, sixteen schools and colleges within the North East LEP area became the first in the UK to test the benchmarks, designed to equip the next generation with the skills needed by employers.

Within a year the North East LEP’s groundbreaking work in rolling out this pilot had attracted national acclaim.

Andrew Hodgson, chair of the North East LEP, said: “Good career guidance is crucial for social mobility.  We are delighted to see the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks front and centre of the Government’s national careers strategy.

“After piloting this approach in the North East over the past two years, and with over 100 schools now working to achieve the Benchmarks, we are seeing the hugely positive impact they can make to each and every pupil in schools and colleges.”

Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director for the North East LEP said: “I’d like to thank Gatsby for trusting in us to deliver the pilot and for recognising the North East LEP’s ability to influence national education policy.

“I’d also like to thank those schools and colleges who were initially involved through the pilot and to those who have since shown their support by signing up. The scale of the project has been critical in demonstrating the transformative power of the eight Gatsby benchmarks.

“Finally it’s important to recognise the team at the North East LEP who have worked tirelessly to roll out this initiative. Through our collaborative approach we have been able to demonstrate the resounding success of the Gatsby Good Career Guidance Benchmarks on a national level and showcase the excellent practice taking place here in the region.”

The Careers Strategy is backed by £4m of funding and includes a dedicated careers leader in all schools and colleges in the country to ensure people have access to the best careers support, giving them the best possible start to their professional life.

Sir John Holman, senior advisor to the Gatsby Foundation and author of the Gatsby Career Benchmark report, said: “Good Career Guidance is the key to social mobility. For young people coming from a background of low socioeconomic aspirations, school career guidance is their best hope of charting the way to a rewarding future career.

“We now know, from our international study and from the work of career guidance experts, what makes for good career guidance: it is described by the eight Gatsby benchmarks which have been shown by the pilot in the North East of England to have such a powerful positive effect in schools and colleges.

“I am very pleased that the Department for Education has put these benchmarks at the heart of its strategy.”

The North East LEP’s national facilitator for the Career Benchmarks Pilot, Ryan Gibson, said: “Since the North East became the first UK region to pilot the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks, the approach has proved to be transformational for careers guidance in our schools and colleges.

“At the pilot’s start, no UK school was achieving more than five benchmarks and 50% of schools and colleges in this region weren’t achieving any at all. Now 88% of our schools and colleges are achieving six to eight, with every single one achieving a minimum of four – the benchmarks are a vital part of our plan to ensure that every young person in the North East can make a successful transition into their future career.”

More information on the new Careers Strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/careers-guidance-for-modern-country-unveiled.

Details of the eight Gatsby Career Benchmarks can be found here: www.goodcareerguidance.org.uk

For more information about the North East LEP’s Skills programme, please visit www.nelep.co.uk.

 

ENDS

Home / Skills / Page 9

Retrain, regain, retain – how the North East LEP is driving the #fullerworkinglives agenda

This week the North East LEP held an event with the CIPD North East on unlocking the value of the older workforce – the first of its kind in the UK. Here our Skills Director Michelle Rainbow reports back.

Retrain, regain and retain – three words which are already critical to the success of every organisation.

With an ageing population; fewer younger people entering the labour market; and a drop in the number of skilled workers entering the country due to Brexit, it is more important than ever that employers look to the over 50s to help them drive their businesses forward.

And this is why the North East LEP held an event for employers investigating how those aged over 50 can help them succeed.

 

The government sees the older workforce as a priority

Here at the North East LEP we have long been advocating the Fuller Working Lives approach set by the Government, which sees the UK’s ageing workforce as an economic priority.

It’s a critical area for action. According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) employers are aware in general of an ageing population, but an ageing workforce is not yet a prominent concern and only few employers are taking active steps to change their policies and practices to take this into account.

NIESR’s 2017 findings that having more older workers does not impact on workplace financial performance or quality of outputs will play a key part in challenging bias and increasingly the appeal of this valuable talent pool.

 

 

It makes commercial sense

There are a range of benefits to employing and retaining older workers, from increased loyalty and productivity to lower recruitment costs as staff churn reduces.

It doesn’t stop there though. Age diverse workplaces benefit from a range of experiences, ideas and ways of thinking. As one of our panelists Di Keller from Sage plc noted, diversity of age is critical if an organisation is to offer products and services relevant to their audiences.

 

Get involved with our pilot

We expect interest and engagement with the Fuller Working Lives agenda to continue to rise. In light of this, the North East LEP is working with the DWP and National Careers Service (NCS) to explore how the NCS could provide individuals with better careers and skills advice and how this might have an impact on the retention, retraining and recruitment of workers aged 50 and over.

Participating employers will have free access to help and assistance, including an on-site visit designed to help them manage and skill an ageing workforce – and much more.

If you’d like more information about how the pilot could benefit your business, please contact Jill Greatorex at NCS on 0191 731 4750 – all you have to do is quote North East LEP when you call.

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In conversation with Anne Casey, Regional Adviser at Academy Ambassadors

Thanks to Anne Casey, Regional Adviser, Academy Ambassadors for providing this blog about being part of a school leadership team:

Providing strong leadership is important for any organisation. It ensures stability, growth and a strategic plan for the future.

Schools demand the same, which is why we’re on a recruitment drive in the North East for non-executive directors to support the increasing number of Academy Schools opening in the region.

Academy Ambassadors is a non-profit organisation set up to bring inspirational educationalists together with talented business leaders to build better multi-academy trust boards.

We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the North East LEP to offer business leaders in the region the opportunity to support all established and future Academies.

We want to address the gap between the performance of schools in the North and South and we believe the business community can help us address that by providing strong leadership in our Academy Trusts, with business acumen, experience and strategic vision applied directly to academy boards through pro bono trustee roles.

We recruit from a range of different industries and disciplines including the corporate sector, HR, IT, marketing & PR and the financial services. It’s this range of skills that supports the work of CEOs and executive principals in Academies to provide the highest standard of education to our young people.

Academy Ambassadors has to date recruited more than 500 business leaders to non-executive directorship or trustee roles; around 134 of those are in the North of the country. Non-executive directors can sit on a trust board of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) which can have anywhere from two to 65 or more academies, with budgets ranging from £10m for a small trust to £100m + for the largest. With the potential for such scale – and associated accountability – the need for experienced business leaders is evident.

Some of the North East businesses already working with Academy Ambassadors include BT, Lloyds Banking Group and PwC, however we are also working with SMEs across the region.

We’re committed to recruiting the right kind of people, which is why we look to the business community who can provide the right kind of strategic skills modern Academies demand. We need Boards with diverse skills, an aptitude for governance and an understanding of the local and regional context. Boards should be diverse and reflect their local communities, which is again something the business community can support.

Experience of working in education is not a pre-requisite to become an Academy Ambassadors-placed non-executive director. The ability to think strategically, hold people to account and deploy resources efficiently to make a real difference to young people’s futures are just some of the skills we’re looking for in non-executive directors or trustees.

Academies are experiencing a period of rapid growth, from 200 to 5,000 in just five years. They demand real business acumen and a range of skills that business leaders in the North East have in spades.

If you’d like to know more about the opportunities available at Academy Ambassadors, please visit our website – www.academyambassadors.org – or contact me direct via the email address [email protected]

Academy Ambassadors works closely with Inspiring Governance to share knowledge and help build relationships. Like Academy Ambassadors, Inspiring Governance is a free, national matchmaking service specialising in connecting volunteers with schools looking for governors and trustees, though its focus is on the Local Governing Body (LGB) level, providing school governors as well as trustees. More information is available at inspiringgovernance.org

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Growing our Digital Future

We are working closely with Accenture to encourage schools to participate in their Digital Skills programme – a free initiative for schools to help students enhance their experiences of digital communications.

Thanks to Ryan Gibson, Facilitator for the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot, for this blog about digital careers in the North East, and the many reasons why teachers should encourage students to participate in the programme.

I wonder if like me, you have often heard phrases such as the ‘digital economy’, ‘digital literacy’ or ‘digital community’ but not really taken the time to reflect on what these actually mean, their impact on economic growth, the prosperity of the region, more and better jobs and the implications for how we prepare young people to enter and thrive in an ever changing labour market.

A North East of England Chamber of Commerce survey in 2015 found that 66% of businesses believed that education was not effectively preparing young people for work. The House of Lords have stated that digital skills should be taught as a third core subject, valued as important as achievement in Maths and English.

How many of us now check the news using an app on our phone, connect with friends and family on facebook, use internet banking, shop online, follow people on twitter or connect with them on LinkedIn. When reflecting on your own professional role, I wonder if you recognise similar things to me? I am increasingly working with platforms such as Google Docs and Dropbox, collecting, collating, presenting and evaluating big data, tweeting, using LinkedIn, using Skype and writing blogs! It is challenging isn’t it and certainly something I was not prepared for. I had to learn as I went, picking up bits and pieces from colleagues who seemed to have mastered this whole new world.

Businesses, and especially SMEs, report that digital skills are becoming essential in all areas of work, regardless of the sector. Indeed a quick glance at online job posts and vacancy websites reinforces the growing demand for digitally competent individuals. While it is not possible to predict exactly what digital skills a young person may need in the future, it is important that we work to ensure that they can evidence a level of digital skills that will appeal to an employer – ensuring that they are both prepared and equipped to take advantage of better job opportunities.

So what exactly are those job opportunities in the North East. Well, take a look at our refreshed Strategic Economic Plan for the region. The North East digital community is one of the most vibrant, productive and rapidly developing in the UK.

With over 29,000 IT and digital employees working in the region and a further 15,250 creative industries employees, we have a technology industry valued at £2 billion – part of a northern ICT economy worth £12 billion. And isn’t it fantastic that the Headquarters of FTSE 100 listed software leader, Sage, shared service centres for HP, BT, Accenture and IBM are all located in the North East.

There is also a fantastic network of business support organisations operating here in the region, which I will talk about in a future blog.

So, with fantastic opportunities comes a key challenge – how can we better prepare and equip each and every young person with the digital skills they need to take advantage of job opportunities and thrive in this hotbed of digital activity? We are delighted to support Accenture’s ‘Digital Skills’ programme, as it’s a fantastic way of doing just that.

This free online course, designed by Accenture, is available to 16+ year olds and focuses on six modules:

  • Digital fundamentals
  • Social media
  • Digital marketing
  • User Experience
  • Mobility
  • Analytics

These six units can be integrated into sixth form / college curriculum or can be studied by students in their own time and at their own pace. The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) uses the Future Learn platform to deliver an innovative social learning approach, supported with over 90 bitesize videos and individualised assessments to recognize achievement. On completion, students receive an Accenture ‘digital badge’, accrediting and validating their learning and allowing them to evidence their skills to employers across the region.

As an educator, I can’t help but see how beneficial this could be on a student’s UCAS, apprenticeship or job application form and how important it is to help young people build their professional online profile. With 27% growth in digital salaries in the North East, over 1500 current vacancies in the region, a projected 745000 more workers needed with digital skills by the end of 2017 and 49% of SMEs saying they lack workers with basic digital skills – can we really afford not to take advantage of such amazing opportunities?

If you think that your students could benefit from this free programme, please contact [email protected] by the end of June. Sign up now and be ready to begin the course in September.

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Celebrating success: The Enterprise Adviser Network

The North East LEP’s Enterprise Adviser Network connects senior business leaders with schools and colleges, working closely with their senior leadership team to develop and drive a careers strategy that helps young people gain more experience of the world of work and have meaningful encounters with employers.

Lindsey Peek, North East LEP Enterprise Co-ordinator, gives an update on the Network’s success so far:

We’ve had an excellent response from the region’s schools, colleges and businesses since we started the North East’s Enterprise Adviser Network in 2015.

 

To date we’ve partnered 45 Enterprise Advisers with 45 schools and colleges across the North East, and we’re looking to achieve more. We’re proud to have some of the region’s most influential business leaders involved, representing a range of different sectors.

 

They include Giselle Stewart, Director of Corporate Affairs at video game company Ubisoft Reflections, Sophie Pickup, ‎Learning & Development Manager at Northumbrian Water Group and Jen Chamley, Community Engagement Manager at Capita Property & Infrastructure Ltd.

 

Other leading organisations to join our Enterprise Adviser Network initiative include Barclays, British Engines, Bellway Homes, Unipres, ORE Catapult, Accenture, Printed.com and Campus North.

 

The role of the Enterprise Adviser is to bridge the gap between business and education and create a whole school or college strategy for careers, enterprise and employer engagement. From routes to employment and interview skills to work experience and apprenticeships, students learn about the many career opportunities available to them in the North East and educators develop a better understanding of the local economy, which improves the quality of the careers advice and guidance they can provide to students.

 

Creating a meaningful link between education and business has greatly improved student’s understanding of the labour market and helped the business community access a talented and enthusiastic future workforce who will build the economy of tomorrow.

 

Just one example of the success of our Enterprise Adviser Network initiative is Churchill Community College’s partnership with Accenture.

Karen Marshall, Apprentice, Education and Engagement Lead at Accenture, introduced students to a range of careers-themed events including career speed dating, interactive careers fairs, mock interview events and assemblies. Karen, in partnership with Churchill Community College, also delivered an innovative Assessment Centre simulation exercise for Year 13 students to equip them with experience of a real life work situation. Accenture put the whole year group through the selection process offering guidance on CV writing before taking 40 students for a full assessment centre experience. Many of the college’s GSCE students have also met curriculum targets as part of site visits involving Accenture staff.

 

The Northumberland Church of England Academy’s partnership with ORE Catapult has been citied as an example of best practice by education experts.

As well as taking part in the Academy’s World of Work Day, which sees over 50 leading employers and learning providers give students an insight into a range of different careers, ORE Catapult has also provided work experience opportunities and one to one mentoring. Mark Fox, Careers and Employability Manager at Northumberland Church of England Academy and Tony Quinn, Operations Director at ORE Catapult will be continuing to work together to provide students with unique career guidance and development experiences.

 

To highlight some of the fantastic work being delivered as part of the initiative, we’ve produced a series of videos featuring some of the schools taking part.

Sam Mcloughlin at Studio West School, Newcastle upon Tyne, shared his first-hand experience of the benefits that come from working with an Enterprise Adviser. You can view the video here:

Studio West

We’re still looking for schools and colleges across the North East to join our Enterprise Adviser Network Initiative and partner with leading businesses on a journey to improve careers education and guidance for young people in the region.

 

If you’d like to find out more, please contact me or one my colleagues:

Lindsey Peek
[email protected]

Denis Heaney
[email protected]

Andrew Mills
[email protected]

We look forward to working with you

Lindsey Peek
Enterprise Co-ordinator, Enterprise Adviser Programme at the North East LEP

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Sharing good practice with national leaders in learning

It’s been a great year for our skills programme; we’ve really seen our plans start to come to fruition, and have received local, regional and national recognition from government and other organisations for the pioneering activities we’re delivering. Good career guidance for people of all ages is just one of our areas of focus, and with the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot at the centre of this, we’ve seen impressive results, great examples of collaboration and a real sense of cohesion in this space.

We’re very proud that practitioners and school groups from across the country are reaching out to us and wanting to visit our region to see the pilot in action.

Here, our pilot lead, Ryan Gibson, tells us about the recent visit from the Ark Schools Group, who were interested in finding out more about our implementation of the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot:

When I was appointed to lead the national pilot, looking to improve the quality of careers guidance for all young people, I was not only tasked with supporting schools and colleges in the region but to build a model that could potentially be replicated in every area of the country. To do this, we needed to test the benchmarks in action and work directly with schools and colleges to understand the strengths of their current provision and enable them to devise actions that would drive rapid, sustained and measurable improvement.

At the North East LEP we have started to pilot various approaches as to how we can share learning with others across the country who wish to improve the quality of their careers provision. We have explored and developed various models, including visits and practice-sharing events and recently hosted a learning visit from 12 schools from across the country who are members of the Ark Academies Trust.

Hannah McAuley from Ark provides an insight below:

At Ark schools, we have a mission to ensure that every one of our students will access the university or career of their choice.

As a central university and careers team we have always worked with a range of different partners to provide skills development opportunities, financial bursaries, access to role models and engagement with a host of businesses and universities, but of late we have been grappling with how we can ensure that the vital work that is done in schools to prepare young people for their next steps is the same no matter which Ark school you attend.

Last month, I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of 12 colleagues from across Ark schools to visit those taking part in the Career Benchmarks pilot in the North East. Meeting with the North East LEP and the community driving this work was an extraordinary experience for us and there are a few key lessons that we have taken away:

  • The importance of shared language: If 2015 was the year of the selfie and 2016 of post trust then I am pleased to announce that ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’ is well on its way to be the new phrase of choice for 2017! Every business leader, teacher, careers leader and university we met had aligned themselves behind the Gatsby language. This not only created shared expectation, but started to build community of purpose amongst this diverse group of stakeholders. Even after the first day we found that by adopting the language we were better able to articulate the challenges we are facing with this work in our own schools and use it to develop our actions for the future.
  • No careers lead is an island: While it was clear that the careers lead was the central spine driving the work in each school, partnership and a supportive senior leadership team was clearly fundamental to its success. Investing in strategic and lasting partnership work with businesses, colleges and universities provided a richness to the conversations on all sides about what we were preparing students for. This was complemented by a staff body who were bought in to the framework and whose leadership team understood how all school roles were being deployed to support this work.
  • Meaningful over many encounters: A relentless focus on making existing work more impactful meant that pilot schools were not overwhelming themselves or their students with numerous activities. Led by the North East LEP, there is a relentless focus on making existing work in the region much more impactful. One of our group called this process “Squeezing the maximum value” out of every activity and engagement”. For us at Ark, this was the understanding that it isn’t enough to just send a student out to a workplace if you don’t scaffold the experience and help them to learn from it. This is something that we expect in every lesson we teach and the same principles should be applied to any experience we provide for our students.

There is no doubt that being involved in the pilot has been transformational for the schools and colleges in the North East. What I found most inspiring was how the career benchmarks framework had brought alignment between purpose and process.

Every school leader and teacher wants the best possible future for their students, but so often, this work can feel intangible. Whilst the Gatsby benchmarks don’t necessarily tell us how to achieve this work, they force us to have high expectations and set out what it is we need to achieve. I have no doubt that over time; these benchmarks will transform the way schools prepare students for life beyond school.

Hannah McAuley is Head of University and Careers Success at Ark Schools. Ark is an international charity, transforming lives through education. In the UK, Ark has a network of 35 schools, educating more than 21,000 pupils with a mission to ensure that every young person can access the university or career of their choice. These schools are all non-selective and in areas where they can make the biggest difference.

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Voluntary sector is vitally important for economic growth

At a recent LEP Employment and Skills Board meeting, the importance of the third sector to our sustainable economic growth was again brought home to me.

Board member Carol Botten, deputy chief executive of VONNE, reinforced how voluntary organisations are changing, adapting to a world where business acumen is a priority as grant funding becomes scarce.

More of their income is derived from delivering contracts and services with an emphasis on being commercially focused and sustainable to ensure future viability.

Carol played a leading role in refreshing the employability and social inclusion section of our new Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), to better recognise the job and wealth creation value of our third sector to the North East economy.

Voluntary organisations often reach out to those people deemed by some to be ‘unemployable’.

Using their care and expertise, they are helping the North East LEP and its other partners implement the SEP’s employability and social inclusion agenda on the ground.

Strengthening our employment rate is crucial to sustainable economic growth, and for those on the margins of society, finding meaningful employment is a fundamental route out of poverty and exclusion.

Newly released Third Sector Trends Data for 2017 underlines the economic importance of voluntary organisations and their activity. Figures show there are 7,000 formal voluntary groups based in our region.

They employ 37,500 full-time equivalent employees. Across the whole of the North of England, the third sector is a larger employer than the finance and insurance industry.

Its value to the North East economy through salaries is estimated at £750m.

A growing number of third sector organisations are experiencing rapid growth, such as Changing Lives in Gateshead.

Back in 2006 it was a North East focused employer of 84 people with a £2.2m turnover.

Fast forward just over a decade and it works with disadvantaged people from the Midlands to Berwick, with 465 staff on its books and a turnover of £16.3m.

As my fellow board member Paul Varley tells me, profit is no longer a dirty word in the third sector.

Paul is chair of Northern Rights, an acclaimed social enterprise managed by local people helping the disadvantaged find work.

Taking surplus profits and investing them into doing even more good through the core services they deliver well, means charities reach more people who need their help.

The North East LEP and its partners have set the region the bold target of creating 100,000 more and better jobs over the next seven years.

In doing so, we recognise the growing contribution of organisations such as the Tyne Gateway Trust, its sharp business acumen creating the revenue to be able to invest into the business and grow.

Pauline Wonders, the trust’s strategic director, and her team work with the long-term unemployed, people whose self-confidence has been shattered to the point where some don’t consider themselves worthy of work.

Her team of 24 staff – all of whom were previously unemployed themselves – connect with people, nurture their self-esteem and give them the tools to start their own community enterprises or support them into sustained work.

Inspiring, important activity with real economic value.

Andrew Hodgson,

North East LEP Chair.

Home / Skills / Page 9

Accelerating Opportunities for North East Teens

Ryan Gibson reports on how the National Citizen Service (NCS) is supporting schools and enhancing vital careers education – accelerating opportunities for young people in the North East.

At the NCS North East stakeholder group meeting last month, I was encouraged by progress toward a permanent statutory footing for this incredibly important programme. The move is especially welcome here in the North East, a region in which I am extremely proud to say a staggering 95% of our schools are working with NCS right now.

Now the biggest youth movement of its kind, NCS is for 15-17 year olds. Like the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot, for which I am facilitator, its inclusive approach aims to create long-term impact that benefits individuals, schools and communities as a whole. Indeed, the NCS programme is mapped against the eight Benchmarks of ‘good career guidance’. Both programmes seek to improve social mobility, by ensuring that all young people benefit from extended networks of support – whether these are within the community, with information or with employers who can help them.

Many young people have internalised ideas about what ‘people like them’ might do and where they might fit into the education system and the labour market. For some it is about class, for others its ethnicity or gender. Good careers guidance, enhanced by the work of NCS, actively tackles these assumptions by allowing young people to challenge themselves and explore talents they never knew they had. Young people gain the confidence to apply their skills in practical contexts – meaningful experiences that will help them when it comes to applying for jobs or engaging in job, apprenticeship or university applications and interviews.

Through NCS, teenagers gain confidence, leadership and communication skills – as well as resilience and grit – which are vital for employability and life.

Last year alone, teenagers in our region gave over 214,000 hours volunteering through NCS – equivalent to £1million invested into the regional economy. Youth-led community projects offer teenagers compelling real world opportunities to develop and evidence skills that make CVs and UCAS statements stand out. The NCS enterprise agenda produces mature and capable young people.

In addition, when they enter the world of work or university, with all its diversity and challenges, young people are better prepared – thanks to the unique NCS social mix and its focus on stepping out of comfort zones. Wonderfully, the programme also nurtures British values such as tolerance, respect and inclusion; and offers positive outlets and role models for young people.

In our region, NCS is delivered by a partnership of youth charities; V•Inspired and National Youth Agency, working with 13 grassroots organisations right across the region. Since the partnership took on the contract in 2015, nearly 6,000 of our young people have taken part in the scheme.

A dozen North East schools have been lauded for their exemplary support for NCS through the exciting Star Schools Awards whilst over 20 others have scooped Champion School status. Good luck to the many schools already working toward these accolades in 2017.

This year, there are more NCS places than ever before: offering significant investment in developing learners across the region. Schools particularly benefit from the programme’s support with learner progression into work or studies, and they recognise the direct contribution NCS makes to Ofsted judgements.

It’s great to be working together with schools, stakeholders and other partners to help as many North East teenagers as possible access the life-changing experience that is NCS.

Thousands of North East teenagers have already booked their Summer NCS experience. Support young people you work with by engaging and finding out more at NCSNORTHEAST.CO.UK

Home / Skills / Page 9

In conversation with David Baines, Project Manager, Turner & Townsend

David recently started working with the North East LEP Skills Team to help with the project management of the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot’s Innovation Fund.

Each of the 16 schools and colleges participating in the national Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot can bid for the Innovation Fund. This is money specifically set aside by the pilot funders, the Gatsby Foundation, to help them achieve the Benchmarks. The Skills Team tasked me with ensuring the Innovation Fund projects are completed within an acceptable timescale, and to measure and demonstrate overall impact.

This is a different area of work to my usual ‘day job’, however, the principle is still the same – tracking projects to ensure that they’re delivered on time, to cost and to quality. The schools all have a different approach when it comes to applying innovation to achieve the Benchmarks, and planning out the best way of monitoring progress and reporting has been really interesting so far.

The projects cover a range of different areas. Churchill Community College is implementing a ‘Career Zone’, with simulated employer sessions for years 7 and 8 pupils. Other schools are working together to improve the tracking of student information, known as ‘destination data’. Another project reaching a range of institutions is ‘Digital Encounters’; reviewing the use of digital media in the UK and how it can be applied for careers education.

In addition to measuring success, I’m also responsible for helping schools identify and resolve challenges. ‘Parental engagement’ has been reported as one of the most testing elements so far. Schools and colleges have worked together to plan an approach to resolving this, including involving parents early on, and providing as much communication as possible. The Innovation Fund has also supported a specific project focusing on supporting parents and carers as the key influencers in a young person’s career aspirations, and strategies that can be taken to maximise engagement.

The breadth of Innovation Fund projects demonstrates how many different elements there are that make up a successful careers programme. When this element of the pilot is finished, we’d like to see a successful compilation of activities that other schools in the UK can replicate, or learn from, when rolling out the Benchmarks themselves. A ‘lessons learned’ log will also help inform them.  Ultimately, we’re working towards being able to demonstrate impact both in terms of return on investment and school results, crucial for getting buy-in from schools.

David will continue working with the pilot schools and colleges, with the output being a final report demonstrating the Innovation Fund’s impact and tangible ideas for other areas to implement.