CEIAG & Careers Leaders
What Heads don't know they don't know about Careers
Monday 18th November 2013
I've had this blog at the back of my mind for several weeks, mulling over its form and content. Should its tone be gentle and coaching or should it be strident and drum bashing. I'm still not sure what is the best route; so I'm going to write and see where I end up.
I'm probably best to start with what some/most heads seem to think careers is...
- A threat to their 6th form
- Something that Connexions did
- Something they know little about
- Something that is yet another thing on the ever growing list of things to do but no extra money for it.
- Something a fair way down the list of to dos
I hope this article helps heads see that career development skills are a very worthwhile and important part of the curriculum which provides the opportunity for so much improvement throughout the school.
What careers isn't
It's not that 30 minute interview with a careers advisor at some point in year 11. This view is probably the most damaging. It leads to the type of comment that goes something like this
"There's no real point to careers, they just give them a bit of information they could get on the net."
"The careers advisor told me I should be a gamekeeper, how the hell am I going to be that in Walthamstow."
"They'll fill their heads with nonsense about college, we want them in our 6th form."
All of which leads to a detrimental view of careers on the school curriculum.
What Careers SHOULD be
It should be Careers Development Skills aka Careers Learning. It should be a coherent mix of:-
Information - This isn't just being given a website or program to access; it's about being shown how to be discerning researchers. How to find, manage and interpret information from a variety of sources and being able to do so in various contexts, not just careers information.
Education - Learning the skills necessary in the 21stC to be able to manage one's own career, with clear goals and ambitions. Skills such as managing social media, writing CVs, being able to identify one's own strengths and areas for improvement.
Guidance - This is the careers interview bit. It shouldn't be just a single interview for everyone, some may need many more than one meeting. Others may be more together and only need a quick 'check over' to see they are making realistic choices and plans.
Advice - This is where the word impartial really comes into play. Giving advice to a young person about what they should do with the rest of their life is a difficult job. True impartiality is equipping pupils the tools they need to make considered choices about their next steps. Too many schools, especially with sixth forms give poor advice just simply because they need bums on seats. I'll give you a real life example that I came across
David is autistic and very very interested in trains. The careers advisor and head of careers went out of their way to ensure an excellent work experience with a train company and discussed options with him, including an apprenticeship. When his GCSE results came through, he had achieved more than 5 A*-C passes. At that point the SLT of the school stepped in and convinced him that staying on for A levels was his best choice. At the end of year 12 his AS levels were not encouraging and the school told him that he couldn't stay on to year 13. A whole year of his life wasted and a great big kick to his self worth.
This highlights the very real need for teachers to understand what careers development skills are and the risk of giving well meaning but patently poor advice. A top priority is to ensure that tutors get good basic training in how to handle careers conversations.
Why should I, as a headteacher, move Career Development Skills up the list?
Ofsted Says so here It found that careers in around 80% of schools was not up to standard and have started training its inspectors to make judgements on how effective the schools are in delivering quality careers learning. This will impact on the level given for the schools management and effectiveness.
The DFE says so here we are currently awaiting further clarification of what good careers guidance must/should comprise. However, given the government is very keen to be seen as non prescriptive it would still be a loose definition and will allow for variation. What is clear though is it will contain a lot of employer engagement, this will, of course, bring with it the need for quality assurance and impact measurement - especially with PP being a priority. The 2011 statutory guidance can be found here.
Destinations data is now published on all secondary schools. If you have a lot of students who are NEET or who drop out of courses it will pull you down the local league tables. Also in the current climate parents are looking for schools that will prepare their child for their life, not just their GCSEs.
Improved GCSE results Given then hoo haa about Russell Group and the facilitating subjects list, it should not be forgotten that pupils who make informed choices at both GCSE & A level, do so having gained a better understanding of the requirements of the course and the implications of failure to achieve. http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/faqs/ is a good place to start showing year 9s the implications of their KS4 choices
What can I do?
Get together with other local schools and pool good practice - share the load.
Appoint a member of your SLT/MLT to run careers, make sure they get training.
Sign up for a careers quality mark, Careers England oversees them. They can be effective catalysts for improvement.
Sign up for http://www.nationalcareersweek.com/ Start thinking about what you can do with NCW's support
Get help and support. Look at my Pinterest boards contain links to hundreds of organisations and documents that will help and support your school in its transition to providing excellent career development skills.
Above all, feel free to contact me, I'm always willing to help.
