Category: News and Events

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Hub Newsletter – Education – 10/01/2025

Happy new year! We hope you have had a lovely festive break and are well rested in preparation for another busy term! Whilst its a shorter term its action packed with both National Apprenticeships Week beginning 10/02/2025 and National Careers Week starting 03/03/25.

We have added key dates below which include a range of masterclasses that link to the five main themes of the updated Gatsby Benchmarks. These will be 30 minute virtual sessions and we encourage you to prioritise attending wherever possible.

We then expect to have had the new careers statutory guidance published and will follow up with briefings (similar to the Gatsby briefings) within a few weeks of publication. In the summer term we will then focus on individual benchmark masterclasses running through May, June and July.

Key Dates for the Spring Term

  • Wednesday 8th January – Term 2 Kick Off (for Careers Leaders and Industry Partners). View the slides from this briefing here.
  • Wednesday 22nd January – New Career Leader & Industry Partner Careers Hub Introduction (for all new CL & IPs that have not yet attended, an opportunity to join our Hub Leads and learn more about South Midlands careers Hub. Invite will be sent via Teams, email careershub@southmidlands.org.uk if you would like to attend)
  • Masterclasses – Calendar invitations will be sent out to all Career Leaders, if you do not receive an invitation and would like to attend please email careershub@southmidlands.org.uk.
    • Thursday 30th January – Masterclass – Internal Leadership Review
    • Tuesday 25th February – Masterclass – Parental Engagement
    • Tuesday 18th March – Masterclass – Making in Meaningful
    • Thursday 24th April – Masterclass – Universal vs Targeted Careers Education Programs
  • Career Leader Network Meetings
    • 13/01/25 Luton Career Leader Network Meeting
    • 22/01/25 Bedford Borough Career Leader Network Meeting
    • 05/02/25 West Northants Career Leader Network Meeting
    • 06/02/25 North Northants Career Leader Network Meeting
    • 06/05/25 Central Bedfordshire Career Leader Network Meeting
    • 27/02/25 MK Career Leader Network Meeting

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Celebrating Success

We wanted to ensure that we are recognising and celebrating your hard earned achievements, so are introducing a termly Celebrating Success feature. If you have some innovative practice to share, have recently achieved the Quality in Careers Standard, or have studied hard to complete a careers qualification please let your Careers Consultant know, (pictures most welcome!)

easyJet school collaboration leads to apprenticeship success for Challney High School for Boys Student

As a local large employer for the town, easyJet work closely with Luton schools and colleges, to inform students of the breadth of opportunities available across the organisation and wider aviation industry.

easyJet got in touch with Louise, our Luton Careers Consultant to offer visits to the schools, to talk about an exciting new apprenticeship that was launching in Autumn 2024.

Shital Pancholi, Career Leader for Challney High School for Boys, was quick to sign up for this, given easyJet’s relationship with the school as an Industry Partner, and the familiarity to the students, through the many trips and encounters they’d had.

easyJet colleagues, Ruth Martin and Pete Foreman, attended a year 11 lunch time drop-in session and were joined by 10 serious students. They talked through the new Maintenance Operations Apprenticeship including the application process and what the training and role would involve. Student Arman Chowdhury submitted an application after attending the talk and was successful. He started his apprenticeship in September.

On the news of his success, Shital said “We feel so proud of him for taking on this amazing opportunity and are very grateful to easyJet for working with our school to promote these opportunities to their future workforce”.

Industry Partner Supports Successful Business breakfast at Wren School

As part of Wrenn Schools’ drive to develop relationships with community partners and local businesses, their Careers Leader and Careers Consultant worked together to invite business/community leaders to attend their first ‘Business Breakfast Networking Event’ to communicate and showcase Wrenn’s aspirational Careers Programme. The event took place on: Wednesday 23rd October 2024 from 7.30 – 8.30am, at: Wrenn School, Wellingborough

Head of Careers, Jo Bolton presented an overview of the Careers Programme
Claire Coles, Careers Consultant and Debbie Dymock, Industry Partner and owner of Northamptonshire Careers delivered short presentations detailing support of Wrenn School.

The event concluded with an opportunity to network and speak to members of the Careers Team to explore opportunities to engage with Wrenn School over the coming year.

Careers Leader and Careers Adviser Qualification Completions

Congratulations Zoe Correa on completing your Level 6 qualification in Careers Leadership – no mean feat alongside developing your programme and your many other commitments and responsibilities. The students of Huxlow Academy have benefitted from a range of careers activities including a Careers Fair, drop down days, and support from South Midlands Careers Hub Industry Partner, Adrian Green FITOL.

‘It has been a joy to work with you over the past year and I look forward to achieving more of our aims over the next one – watch this space!’ Claire, North Northants Careers Consultant.

Joanne Ripley, Career Leader at Lincroft Academy completed her Level 6 Careers Leader award in August 2023 while still fairly new to post. Joanne went on to start her Level 6 Guidance and Development qualification in October 2023 and completed it by August 2024. Joanne has completed this all while developing a proactive careers programme for the students of Lincroft Academy.

Careers Leader Simon Hill offers peer to peer support on developing careers area of school website

Simon Hill, Careers Leader: Manor School, Raunds recently answered the call to support two North Northants Careers Leaders by sharing his approach to the development of his Careers page on the school website, sharing insight and a list of top tips! We really appreciate Simon generously providing his time and expertise in this peer to peer project.

We are also delighted to celebrate a new partnership between Manor School, Raunds and Industry Partner, Adam Fox, Senior Vice President of Wellingborough & East Northants Chamber of Commerce & Director of Evolve Business Coaching Ltd. Careers Leader, Simon Hill, SLT Careers Link, Justine Mitchell-Bunce & Careers Coordinator, Lisa Smedley provided a warm welcome to Adam and have already established a positive partnership.

Milton Keynes schools have had a fantastic start to the new academic year

Sir Herbert Leon have been rated as a good school by Ofsted showing how a careers programme can have an impact on whole school improvement when it’s seen as a golden thread.

We have welcomed a number of new Careers Leaders with Nadia at Watling Academy, Laura at St Pauls, Aline at Sir Herbert Leon and Cheryl at Stantonbury all joining us for the local cohort of Career Leader training! It’s great to have so many new Career Leaders engaging early on in the support available to learn more about the leadership role. The positive impact the training is having can already be seen. Sam at Oakgrove is undertaking her guidance qualification and working hard to support students whilst achieving this qualification.

Shout outs to Cat at Denbigh and Dawn at Kents Hill for sending out the Future Skills Questionnaires to students – it’s fantastic to have student voice to help shape the future careers progamme in school and will be so important with the new Gatsby benchmarks.

MKA have run a great enterprise week and had a STEMX, Red Bull visit. St Pauls have started an apprenticeship academy for Year 13’s and it will be great to see the outcomes 😊 Thanks to Donna at Walton and Alyce at 5 Dimensions Trust for running an apprenticeship information session and sharing how they run apprenticeship ‘academies’ – it really helps sharing best practice. Renuka at Lord Grey has been arranging fantastic experiences of the workplace for her students and Slated Row and Woodlands School are brilliant at providing their students with the best opportunities to succeed.

Many schools have held fantastic careers fairs and employability events and the pictures below show how engaged everyone has been!

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🥈NNBN’S START UP BUSINESS OF THE YEAR: RUNNER UP 🥈

What a night! Full of great entertainment, amazing food, and surrounded by inspiring businesses. I’m still buzzing from it all!For those who don’t know, Northants Fashion & Textiles School was announced as Runner Up in this year’s @nnbnawards Start Up Business of the Year category – and I’m still in shock!To be honest, I went into the evening just hoping for a fun “date night” with my husband and couldn’t believe it when we were called as runners up. Such an unexpected and incredible moment!A huge thank you to @nnbnltd for hosting this amazing celebration of local businesses and to our category sponsor @business_doctors_northampton for their support.
A special shout-out to the team at @yokehillwellbeing for cheering us on like we were a massive brand – you made the night so much more fun!
But, most importantly, THANK YOU to every child, parent, and carer who has supported Northants Fashion & Textiles School on this journey so far. This recognition is all because of YOU. 💜

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Build a Sustainable School for the future (Hybrid Work Experience)

This is a hybrid work experience opportunity – 2 days face to face and 2 day virtual and will be delivered to students who are located in Northampton.

Amey are a leading provider of full life-cycle engineering, operations and decarbonisation solutions, for transport infrastructure and complex facilities.

Our purpose is to deliver sustainable infrastructure solutions that enhance life and protect our shared future.

We deliver bespoke asset and facilities management services designed specifically for our clients who operate in complex environments – including defence, justice, education, and health. We deliver essential services across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – looking after 141 schools and colleges, 18,000 military homes and 60 prisons. We support the UK justice sector by providing secure Facility Management within prisons, court and transport services, and prisoner escorting. We are one the UK’s core defence contractors and ensure our UK Armed Forces have suitable workplaces, vehicles, equipment, and housing.

This opportunity will:

Provide an insight into a leading Infrastructure and Engineering company

Explore the work of operations on one of our contracts within our Complex Facilities business (including an on site visit)

Discuss the opportunities available through our various early careers’ pathways

Hints & tips for useful transferable skills and interview skills

Group project work based on ‘How to build a sustainable school for the future’

Date: 17/02/2025 – 20/02/2025, 10am – 2pm

Booking Link

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Hub Newsletter 02/12/2024

For Action

Please make sure you complete a Compass self evaluation before the end of term. When doing this do include all activity you have planned to take place throughout the academic year. Reminder that you are assessing yourself against the original benchmarks and that the Compass questions will not have changed. Reminder here how to copy across your previous compass evaluation which will save you time as you will only need to amend anything that has changed

Spring Term Kick off briefing. This will be taking place Wednesday 8th January 2025 from 16.00 to 16.30. A calendar invite will be sent directly to all Careers Leaders and Industry Partners before the end of term.

New Career Leader Induction, Wednesday 22nd January 2025 from 16.00 to 16.45 If you are new to the role of Careers Leader this academic year and have not yet attended our Hub induction please save the date. We will be emailing you a calendar invite directly.

Our Hub inductions are for new Careers Leaders and new Industry partners. Covering the role of the Careers Hub and the support, resources and training that is available, as well as a brief overview of careers policy and provision nationally.

For Info

Thanks to those of you that attended our Gatsby Updates online briefing and discussion groups last week. Please find recording of the session here and slides here.

As you reflect on the updated benchmarks, we urge you to undertake a Careers Impact internal leadership review with senior leaders and colleagues. Available in Compass+ and Compass, the review is a critical friend that provides a structured way to help prioritise and consider how you approach the strategic planning of the implementation of the updates.

The Future Skills Questionnaire provides critical insights into young people’s career readiness and skills development.

  • A heartfelt thank you to everyone who made this year’s Future Skills Questionnaire our biggest yet!
  • Nationally over 238,000 young people shared their perspectives on career readiness and aspirations.
  • Your contributions are shaping the future of careers education. 
  • Read the key highlights and access the full report here
  • Planning to deliver the Future Skills Questionnaire to learners next term? We have resources to support you here.

Online training – Encouraging and supporting parents and carers

With parental engagement one of the key updates to the Gatsby Benchmarks this free CPD will support and equip you to develop practice in parent and carer engagement in careers. The free training will help you to:

  • Express the value and benefits of engaging parents and carers to colleagues and senior leaders
  • Evaluate current provision and identify barriers
  • Plan a targeted piece of family-friendly careers education that addresses a need in your setting.
  • Help equip parents and carers with the knowledge and confidence they need to start impactful careers conversations with their children.
  • Get started today with our free CPD: https://bit.ly/3V4KeGr

Top Tips

Check out our top tips for this month to help you understand the updates to the Gatsby Benchmarks and how you can drive even more impact for young people.

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Hub Newsletter 19.11.2024

Updated Gatsby Benchmarks

The last decade has seen dedicated professionals from the worlds of education, careers and employment putting the Gatsby Benchmarks for Good Career Guidance into practice. As a result, we are seeing measurable differences to the life chances of young people. It is vital this impact continues. So, with innovations in practice and changes to the world of work and education since they were first published, The Gatsby Foundation have updated the eight Gatsby Benchmarks . Together they continue to be a useful, practical and impactful framework which defines world-class career guidance.

After almost two years of research and consultation, The Gatsby Foundation has now released it’s resulting report, Good Careers Guidance The Next Ten Years It sets out the updated benchmark framework and the underpinning evidence and showcases examples of good practice from their extensive programme of visits.

Gatsby are keen to thank the hundreds of schools, colleges, training providers, employers and careers specialists that fed into this work, a number of which work across The South Midlands.

The core of the eight Gatsby Benchmarks remains the same, but the changes that have been made are really important.

FAQs

Are the compass questions going to change immediately? – Not yet, compass self assessments will be against the existing Gatsby Benchmarks for the remainder of this academic year.

Will the statutory guidance for careers be updated? – we are expecting this to be updated in Spring 2025 with any changes being implemented from September 2025 onwards.

For Action

Please take some time to read the report and use it as an opportunity to celebrate, with colleagues, the hard work and progress of the last ten years as you plan for the next. Whilst it is tempting to dive into the detail there is plenty of time for this, and we encourage you to read and reflect on the report as a whole first.

The South Midlands Careers Hub will be running Gatsby Benchmark Masterclasses throughout the 2024-25 academic year in response to the published refinements to the Gatsby Benchmarks. On Thursday 21st November we will be running the following online briefing and discussion groups:

  • Career Leader briefing and discussion group – 12:30 – 14:00
  • Senior Leaders / Governors briefing  – 8:00 – 8:20
  • Senior Leaders / Governor briefing – 15:45 – 16:05

If you would like to attend please email careershub@semlep.com and we will forward a meeting invite to you.

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Free virtual work experience events with National Highways this November

Digdata is thrilled to announce free virtual work experience events with National Highways this November and December. These career challenges are designed to develop key employability skills such as problem solving, data literacy, storytelling, and presentation. Hosted on Microsoft Teams, these sessions take place outside of school hours, making them easily accessible.

Students will enjoy: • A 45-minute briefing with the National Highways team • The opportunity to complete a career challenge at their own pace • Certification upon completion

These events provide valuable insights into emerging careers and help students build skills that will enhance their future education and employment choices.

Please can you share the below with your students – registrations are now open!

First Step – for students in the following year groups

England and Wales – years 7,8,9

Northern Ireland – years 8NI, 9NI, 10NI

Scotland – years S1, S2, S3

Wednesday 27th November at 4.30pm (45-minute briefing session on MS Teams)

Gain virtual work experience with National Highways!

How did the hedgehog cross the road?

Register Now!

Next Step – for students in the following year groups

England and Wales – years 10,11,12,13

Northern Ireland – years 11NI, 12NI, 13NI, 14NI

Scotland – years S4, S5, S6

Wednesday 11th December at 5pm (45-minute briefing session on MS Teams)

Gain virtual work experience with National Highways

Where there is Wi-Fi there’s a way!

Register Now!

 We invite you and parents to attend either or both events! Register Now!

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Students – How To Find a Great Work Experience Placement!

60 minutes of really practical advice to help young people connect with employers and find a GREAT work experience opportunities.


TUESDAY 12TH NOVEMBER – 6.30PM

We will be covering:

💥 How to use social media to find work experience

💥 What your parents / relatives can do to help you

💥 Why your ‘adult network’ is key…and who is in it?

💥 How to demonstrate to an employer that you’re serious about their work

💥 An email template you can use to contact employers

💥 Why developing ‘relationships’ is your key to getting people to help you

💥 How to prepare to get the most from your work experience

💥 What you need to do after your work experience

At the end of the session, you’ll have a list of things that you can do that will really help you find a great placement……and you’ll be able to get straight to work! Click the link below to book your FREE ticket:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-find-a-great-work-experience-placement-tickets-1059512503419

We’re hugely grateful to East Sussex Careers Hub for supporting this webinar, which is also open to young people and parents from all locations.

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My Great First Job – Degree Apprenticeships, what are they all about – Webinar Recording

A few weeks ago we ran a webinar all about Degree Apprenticeships – we were joined by 3 young people who were either about to start their programmes, or who were going into their final year.

The link to the recording of the session is on our website – feel free to use it as a resource in your school, or to forward it to anyone who might find it helpful.
👇👇👇 
https://www.mygreatfirstjob.com/post/degree-apprenticeships-what-are-they-all-about-1

Degree Apprenticeship Mentoring Programme

Our Degree Apprenticeship Mentoring Programme starts in 2 weeks – just 20 places available!

Our experience is that a lot of young people who are applying for Degree Apprenticeships are ‘flying solo’…..they’re trying to figure out on their own how to present their CV, how to navigate a video interview, and what research to do for an assessment day.

Our Degree Apprenticeship Mentoring Programme is here to help them, and give parents the piece of mind that their son/daughter is not missing out on opportunities because of a lack of knowledge.

The 4 month mentoring programme includes small group sessions, personalised feedback and 1-2-1 action planning meetings.

We’re running ‘Insight Sessions’ so young people and their parents can find out more, and figure out whether the support we offer will work for them.
We also offer an entirely bespoke 1-2-1 programme so we’ll be covering that too.

This is a paid-for mentoring programme with a cost of £55 a month for 4 months for the ‘group’ programme.

If you have pupils who could benefit from the programme please could you forward this email to their parents.

They can then click one of the links below to book a spot on one of the free 30 minute Insight Sessions – they’ll just need to attend one of them.

The next programme starts on 18th November 2024.

Tuesday 5th November – 5.30pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2rJK94_-RM-CUVBLDlN2eg

Friday 8th November – 6.00pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kEkEqzfARtCE-vI5IFqMGA

Saturday 9th November – 11.00am
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_n5WIQxO-TO2wS935DvxIzw

Tuesday 12th November – 5.00pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BQHWRqE5RmeoWcYotAbWqA

At the end of each session, there will be a QR code that attendees can use to book a place, if they think the programme could be helpful.

If your school has a number of students who would benefit, and you would like to chat about running the programme in your school, do get in touch.

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Hub Newsletter – 04.11.2024

We hope you have had a lovely half term break. Taking on board your feedback, our Hub Newsletter will be coming out fortnightly moving forward.

For Action

Gatsby Foundation – Good Career Guidance, The Next Ten Years

  • Publication date – Monday 18th November 2024

The South Midlands Careers Hub will be running Gatsby Benchmark Masterclasses throughout the 2024-25 academic year in response to the published refinements to the Gatsby Benchmarks.

On Thursday 21st November we will be running the following online briefing and discussion groups:

  • Career Leader briefing and discussion group – 12:30pm – 2:00pm
  • Senior Leaders / Governors briefing  – 8:00am – 8:20am
  • Senior Leaders / Governor briefing – 3:45pm – 4:05pm

We will then set dates throughout the year to focus on each individual benchmark.

To book your place please select the link below and an invitation will be sent to you. Please share with senior leaders and governors in your school/college.

Book your place here

Upcoming Dates

Open to all so please share with relevant colleagues, please let us know if you have any queries or would like further information or to chat over any of the below activities:

Local AuthorityDateTimeVenueBooking Link
Bedford Borough
CL Network Meeting		Wednesday 13th November 20249.30am – 11:30amBedford CollegeEmail to book: Faye.Gadsby@semlep.com
Central Beds
CL Network Meeting		Friday 15th November 20249.00am – 11:00amPriory House, Chicksands, SG17 5TQEmail to book: Lucy.Mugoya@semlep.com
North Northants
CL Network Meeting		Thursday 14th November 20242:30pm – 4:30pmTresham College, Kettering CampusEmail to book: ccoles@bedford.ac.uk
West Northants
CL Network Meeting		Tuesday 19th November 20248.30am – 10:30amNorthampton CollegeEmail to book: Vikki.Morton@semlep.com

Provider Opportunities

A range of exciting new provider opportunities have been uploaded to the Partner News area of our website take a look here