Ixion – a national, not-for-profit, Ofsted ‘outstanding’ training provider of skills and education – discusses how you can provide a quality careers service for your students
Careers education, information, advice, and guidance (CEIAG) is something all schools are aware they must provide to their learners – but the quality of CEIAG varies from school to school. Even if you are delivering the eight ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’, does that really mean you’re providing a good, quality, service to your students? There are two ways you can help evolve your programme into a good, or even excellent, quality provision.
Schools need a quality careers team, with qualifications behind them, in order to provide an excellent CEIAG curriculum. The Department for Education ‘urges senior leaders to back their careers team, especially their careers leader’. Careers leaders need the skills to understand the impacts of CEIAG and how to move their schools’ programme’ from merely ‘ticking another box’ to offering high quality, personal experiences for each learner.
A Level 6 Certificate in Careers Leadership is available from Ixion* for those running the provision of a career; it can help you prepare your team and grow your understanding of the world of CEIAG – after all, CEIAG has an impact on your pupils far beyond your school gates, and the quality you provide to them will follow them for the rest of their lives. Receiving top quality guidance from the start means students are well-prepared for the world beyond school and that they have everything required to step into further education, training, employment, or apprenticeships.
CEIAG should be provided between Years 8 and 13, but it’s never too early to start. It isn’t just about, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’, but about giving students the skills to understand options, weigh-up choices, and make decisions knowing the consequences and outcomes of each choice they make.
In addition to providing your team with the qualifications they need, the Quality in Careers Standard – the single national quality award for careers education in England, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands – is another excellent way to ensure you are providing the provision of a top-class career.
Fully aligned with the Gatsby Benchmarks, and incorporating Compass and Compass+ into its processes, the Quality in Careers Standard, is ‘strongly recommended’ by the Department for Education for all schools and colleges. The standard shows pupils, parents and external bodies, such as Ofsted, that you not only comply with the minimum standards but provide additional, quality evidence of outcomes for students following your careers programme.
Calthorpe Academy, a 2-19 special needs school in the centre of Birmingham, recently achieved the standard with Ixion. They wanted an external body to evaluate the careers education and practice within the school because they believed it would raise the profile of careers, and the importance of a collaborative approach, across the school. “We wanted an external mechanism/body to evaluate our careers education and practice within school,” explains Bebe Woo, careers lead/vocational inclusion manager. “Ixion allowed us to identify steps forward, and action the gaps recommended by the experts,” she said.
Find out more about the Ixion Quality in Careers Standard here.
*Ixion Holdings, part of Shaw Trust, (formerly Prospects), is a nationally licensed awarding body for the Quality in Careers Standard, in England and Northern Ireland. Ixion provides CEIAG training and qualifications for professionals by professionals.
To find out more about how a combined payroll and HR system could benefit your school, come and chat to Ixion at EdExec LIVE South in London on 9th June or NORTH in Manchester on 6th October 2022. Book your tickets here!
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