CAREERS AND THE WORLD OF WORK MATTER!

“The honest truth ... is there has never been a golden age of careers advice.” 

Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education

We need to help young people find out about careers and the world of work from an early age and help them learn about the opportunities available to them. We need to find ways to teach and enable young people to make decisions about what they want to do in terms of work and jobs. The Education Act 2011 made schools responsible for providing independent and impartial careers advice and guidance. Before that change, local authorities were required to provide a careers service which would provide such guidance. The Act also removed the statutory duty for schools to provide careers education.

0. “Too few schools are providing careers guidance that meets the needs of all their students.'
   'Going in the right direction? Careers guidance in schools' OFSTED

The Careers and Enterprise Company was established to “inspire young people and help them to prepare for and take control of their futures.” It aims to achieve this by helping young people link their education to their future careers, and to develop their employability skills. The Company also wants to increase employer engagement with schools and has established a national network of 'Enterprise Advisers' to do this.

In Sheffield we know that we need more coherence in the transition of young people into the workplace and we recognise that employer-led local collaboration should be at the heart of efforts to support the transition from school to work. There is clear evidence from the Cutlers' 'Made in Sheffield' scheme that greater collaboration at the local level can lead to better outcomes for young people and the work we are doing in Sheffield, and increasingly across the Sheffield City Region, provides a coherent, joined up and sustainable framework for school to work transitions from age 11 to age 19 and over. 

We are creating a core curriculum and scheme of work which support routes to work for the vast majority of young people and is driven and supported by local collaboration and partnership between employers and schools and colleges. We are creating programmes in key employment sectors, like construction, engineering, and healthcare, which deliver meaningful experiences of work, are organised between employers and schools and colleges and include coaching and business mentoring, work placements and experience of the workplace from an early age. 

If you want to ind out more about our work with 'Better Learners, Better Workers: Made in...' please get in touch at chris@brilliant-learning.co.uk.