National Careers Week 2022 launches in the North East

This year’s National Careers Week will be launched in Newcastle upon Tyne, in recognition of pioneering work carried out in North East England to raise the standard of careers guidance for children and young people. Michelle Rainbow, Skills Director at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), explains how businesses, schools and colleges have worked together to pilot new ways of delivering careers guidance.

The North East LEP is delighted to be co-hosting the launch of this year’s National Careers Week. This is the first time this event has been held in the North of England and is recognition of the outstanding work of our partners across the region.

This is a fantastic chance for careers leaders, educators and employers to share best practice and knowledge on improving careers guidance. We are honoured to be joined at this year’s launch by representatives from HM Government — an excellent opportunity to show off the incredible work happening in careers guidance across the country.

After last year’s virtual event, we’re very pleased to invite people from across the country to this in-person launch. Attendees will also be able to participate online and this hybrid model has been one of the positive learnings of the last two years. You can book your tickets for the in-person or online versions now.

National Careers Week celebrates the power of careers guidance to change lives. It transforms students’ futures, from better attainment in school to social mobility, with broader horizons and raised aspirations.

Careers guidance is central to our strategic plan at the North East LEP and we are proud of the hard work of our team, developing innovative approaches with schools and colleges.

We also recognise that change takes time. There is no quick fix to establishing the support and opportunities young people need. Improvements are hard-won and incremental over the long term. And we still have a long way to go. So National Careers Week is an invaluable opportunity to learn from challenges and build on achievements.

This year’s theme is “you”. At the launch, our morning sessions will focus on how you — as careers leaders, business leaders, educators and parents — can support young people to make informed choices about their future.

Sessions will cover the importance of understanding the labour market and how careers leaders can integrate this into the curriculum. We will look at ways to build sustainable and meaningful employer engagement with schools and colleges.

There will be a session on opportunity awareness and how to help students understand the full range of pathways open to them and where they lead. And we will also hear from young people about their experiences starting careers and developing skills for today’s economy and for the future.

In the afternoon, everyone is welcome to attend our regional career event and learn more from our schools and business partners.

Each day over the rest of the week we will take up one of these four themes and celebrate achievements here in the North East. Schools and colleges will host events alongside campaigns, videos and articles — offline and on social media.

Everyone is invited to join the conversation using #NCW2022 and you can visit the National Careers Week website to download toolkits to promote your involvement.

The National Careers Week 2022 launch event takes place on Monday 7 March from 9.30am until 12.45pm. Attendees can join via Zoom or in-person at the Crowne Plaza in Newcastle upon Tyne city centre.

More information and tickets are available here.