CEIAG & Careers Leaders
A Vision for Education 2040 & Building a Consensus pub SSAT
Friday 24th April 2015
Yesterday, I attended the launch of SSAT Building a Consensus & A Vision for Education 2040 event. Whilst many people have Tweeted and otherwise commented on the launch of the latter including @LeadingLearner, who headed the team responsible, in his blog, few have addressed the former publication
The Consensus
The Building a Consensus document is the outcome of a number of theme dinners which focussed on certain areas of education. A number of 'experts' myself included, came together to discuss the topics listed in the report. There were, of course different experts at each dinner rather than a pool of 'jack of all trade' generic experts. You can download the document here to see the topics covered and I was very heartened to see social mobility and vocational education included along with careers education, information, advice & guidance.
Recomendations
I'm a little disappointed in as far as the CEIAG content doesn't explicitly mention the lack of capacity in education and training for those that lead CEIAG. However it is good to see the that the subject is on the radar of educational bodies. The 2 major recommendations to come out of the discussions are:-
- An improved brokerage system driven by the collaboration of employers, young people, careers advisers & other stakeholders based on an open collaborative approach.
- The system must offer easy access to face-to-face independent professional careers advice and guidance for all young people.
This report seems to be influential and hopefully will inform developmental practice in coming years. If that is the case, perhaps the careers community, will once again see the status of careers advisers valued again. I certainly hope so as careers in schools isn't a one person job, it needs collaboration between professions including teachers, SENCOs and CAs, to put young people at the heart of their learning experience.
It was also very heartening to hear Stephen Tierney @LeadingLearner speaking at the event underlining the need for good CEIAG. We need more visionary headteachers who can see the value of widening objectives past pure number crunched data towards what appears to me, to be a more holistic system for pupils and teaching staff alike.
