Outstanding Careers | Careers Education Consultant | Ofsted Inspection Careers

A case study activity for headteachers. Be prepared for Ofsted.

Tuesday 4th June 2013

I start with a very blunt and bold statement. It is purely mine though I'm sure it's shared by a lot of people both in and out of the education sector.

Schools don't have the people, money or knowledge to procure good quality careers ed for their pupils

In the wake of closing Connexions, Mr Gove has created a vast amorphous body of information, activity and confusion leaving schools unable to cope with the fast paced and often untried and duplicated careers activity that is happening in isolation around the country. To compound this, the money saved by closing Connexions wasn't passed on to schools to pay for the services they were receiving. This leaves them not just unprepared in the form of experts within the school but also in the ability to pay for the support that is needed.

So, to enable discussion let's play a little case study game.
Scenario
You are the head of an average sized secondary school with a diverse student population

• You have been told that you need to provide impartial careers education, information and guidance for pupils as the DfE's statutory guidance requires schools to offer careers advice to pupils from year 8 to year 13 so they can make informed choices at age 14
• You have no extra money
• You have nobody on the staff who knows much about careers stuff, Connexions used to tell you what you needed to do.
• You have a 6th form which you are trying to fill
• It looks like Ofsted will start to get interested in what you do for careers shortly

Questions

What level of priority will you give this?
How will you audit what you have in place already?
Who will you approach/where would you look for advice?
What search terms would you use to find information/advice on the internet?
How will you fund any provision that you need to make?
What criteria would you use to decide which of the many different activities and organisations that are available to you?
To whom will you delegate responsibility?
What are your next moves?

My intention is to promote debate and share good practice. So please, heads, principals, SLT share your answers here so that we can all benefit.