CEIAG & Careers Leaders
TeachFirst - For Every School a Careers Teacher
Tuesday 3rd March 2015
The publication of a TeachFirst report yesterday entitled The important role of teachers in providing quality careers learning, has attracted a huge amount of coverage in the media. From lengthy coverage on the BBC website to an hour on Ian Dale's phone in show on LBC (annoyingly scheduled for a time when I was driving and unable to phone in.) Given that it was released on the first day of National Careers Week it couldn't have been timed better.
The report which TeachFirst compiled is based on research done at ICeGs by Prof Tristram Hooley aided by David Andrews OBE and the recently retired and much missed Prof Tony Watts.
Are They Trying To Do Careers On The Cheap?
Whilst the report calls for my utopian ideals for schools that have well qualified middle leaders in charge of careers and SLT members who understand it's importance, it does, as my friend @secondaryCEIAG clearly pointed out ignore one major issue.
This @TeachFirst CEIAG report does its best to ignore the elephant in the room of capacity http://t.co/2PPLO5LAbv via @CareersDefender
— Russell George (@SecondaryCEIAG) March 2, 2015
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@CareersDefender the spreading info bit is fine but what it endorses as best practice is beyond the workload of a teacher with a timetable
— Russell George (@SecondaryCEIAG) March 2, 2015
Some careers advisers have responded thinking that the report advocates the replacing of professional careers advisers with teachers to save money. I don't think it does. I believe that the report is further weight to the continuing campaign for better CEIAG for our young people.
So Why Should Teachers Get Involved?
In between the horrors of the teaching workload, an example of which appeared in the Independent today and the latest thing that the world has decided that schools should tackle (extremism); Who has time to do somebody else's job? How can a teacher take on yet another responsibility and do it well?
To my mind this just underpins the need for schools to have a careers team in place. Not just a careers teacher, not just a careers adviser, not just something to be done TO a school.
My utopian ideal is that each school has a careers team who support and oversee the process within a school or small group of schools all with complementary roles supporting different areas of the CEIAG process.
team SLT/Governor link - who have a helicopter view advised and supported by
Careers Adviser/information officer - Responsible for giving professional advice and managing information
Careers lead teacher - Responsible for the educational aspects such as schemes of work, lesson plans, curriculum planning staff CPD etc
Volunteer subject leaders - Responsible as disseminaters of information and champions of careers in their subject areas
Administrative support - Responsible for the day-to-day admin such as bookings, liaison with employers etc
I should explain that I believe careers teachers and careers advisers are vital in different ways. they complement each other and as far as I'm concerned either, or both, can run the department just as long as there is a fully qualified careers adviser available for at least part of the week to deliver impartial advice in the form of 1-2-1 interviews, groupworks and other activities. No school should ever rely on a non qualified adviser, be they teacher. employer or receptionist to give impartial advice. You just can't meet the statutory duty in this way as they don't have the qualifications and experience to do so effectively.
Ok so this is Utopia, it is an ideal that would probably cost the UK a fair amount of money. Would it cost more than the £35k per school mooted by the Gatsby report? I don't think so. Given the cost to the country of the unemployed and disaffected, surely we need to start looking at the long-term view?
Are we seeing the renaissance of a celebrated, updated and valued careers profession? Given the undertaking, on page19. for TeachFirst to undertake the commissioning of a 'Toolkit for a school-wide approach to careers' I think we could be.
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