CEIAG & Careers Leaders

Careers Displays - Raising the Status of Careers Learning

Careers Displays - Raising the Status of Careers Learning

Tuesday 12th January 2021

The second of my occasional series of blogs on the topic of raising the status of careers in schools and building your careers teams

Why displays are so important to careers learning : -

  • They can be used to disseminate information
  • They act as a form of CPD for teachers
  • They keep careers learning current
  • Ofsted notice them when they visit
  • They keep the idea that careers learning is important in both pupils and staff consciousness. Thus raising the status of careers learning.

Where are careers displays found?

There can be many venues for careers display boards some in corridors, others in specific classrooms, but one shouldn't just think display boards. The technology that has developed prior to and often discovered during lockdown, has opened our eyes to many avenues such as virtual display boards or bulletin boards. There are many of these, and your school may have a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) which enables you to perform the same function.

Other displays can be on TV screens such as PowerPoint shows or video clips of employer encounters which pupils can access. Just add captions to the latter clips to catch interest and point towards where the full video can be seen. Rope in your IT or resources department for this.

Types of Careers Displays

Apart from where we find displays, they can be broken down into different types depending on the desired outcome.

Informational

Details of open days, new books in the library, employer encounter oportunities or talks. Often the easiest to do but one of the hardest to keep up to date. This is often one of the jobs that can be delegated to career champions see previous blog Just remember nothing signals careers learning doesn't matter more than a display board which is out of date.

Inspirational

The careers using (subject); What are alumni doing now displays. or even the career paths of people who are famous or have visited the school to provide employer encounters.

The aim of these displays is often to build bridges between pupils perceptions of the working world and their relationship to it. These displays have a longer shelf life than informational boards as they can be left in place for longer periods before becoming out of date.

Self reflective

These are often a little harder and require a good working knowledge of the ethos of the school and the challenges of the local area. These displays challenge thinking and perceived norms, such as people like me don't go to university. They often go hand in hand with inspirational boards but go further by challenging self perception and accepted norms.

One of the best ideas I've seen, and apologies in advance, I've no idea where this photo came from or who had the original idea so if it was you, please let me know and I'll gladly credit you, incorporated mirrors whilst reinforcing the idea of self determination.



Working Walls

An idea from primary practice, a working wall is a display that encourages class or pupil participation they reinforce and consolidate pupil's knowledge and understanding through practical applications in order for children to learn a skill. They need to be in place at the start of a unit of work.

  • Working walls should reflect what is being covered at that time in careers learning, so would be more useful in classrooms rather than in corridors
  • Working walls should present pupils with challenges based on their prior learning

In order to master a skill this needs to be broken down into its component areas An example of this could be writing a CV or applying for work experience

  • At the end of a unit of work a working wall can present opportunities for children to combine skills and knowledge in complete focused tasks / challenges.
  • You can build their use into your lesson planning, usually as part of a starter or plenary. This focuses pupils attention on the display and reinforces how it evolves
  • It can be used for problem solving and/or extension work for pupils that have finished earlier than others.
  • By actively building in the use of the working walls to your lessons you can offer support to tutors delivering careers learning in tutor or PSHE time. This can be achieved by providing 'pro forma' displays for each classroom including the following sections

WALT - We are learning to.

WILF - What I am looking for.

WAGOLL - What a good one looks like.

TIB - This is because.

The rest of the display space can be used for pupils to note questions or queries, show off good work as well as keeping tabs on where pupils are in the learning process. by outlining the learning journey.

In conclusion. I hope that I've given you a few ideas for careers learning displays. Please share your most successful displays with others, we all need support in these difficult times and sharing good practice is vital for our own development as well as our pupils.

PS Apologies for the awful pic at the top of this blog. I couldn't find a useful stock image so ended up exhibiting my awful graphic design skills