Good morning, thank you to all of you that joined us for our Internal Leadership Review (ILR) masterclass last week. Big thank you again to John Ambrose, Complete Careers & Jo Saward, Creative Education. For those of you that couldn’t make it please find recording HERE and link to download the slide deck below
Our next masterclass is on 25/02/25 from14.00 to 14.45 and will be focusing on the engagement of parents & carers, a meeting link will be emailed directly to all careers leaders. If you are not a Careers Leader and would like to attend please email careershub@southmidlands.org.uk. The engagement of parents & carers is a key theme that is threaded throughout the updated Gatsby benchmarks. Engagement with parents & carers, is now included in Benchmark 1 as part of the strategic planning of careers programmes and throughout the framework there is an emphasis on not only sharing information about education and career options but also supporting them in accessing and utilizing this information in conversations with their children.
Volunteers needed! If you have an example of how you do this, that you could share please speak your careers consultant.
Introducing the Careers & Enterprise Academy
The Careers & Enterprise Academy is the new online home of careers leadership for Careers Leaders and all those who work with them to plan and deliver strategic, progressive careers programmes.
The learning content provides opportunities to build foundational knowledge as a new Careers Leader, and then develop deeper skills, including using our digital tools to drive impact, and how to engage parents/carers in careers.
Tailored content for those in other roles including Education Leaders, Governors, SENCOs and the wider education workforce are also available to help everyone effectively play their part in helping young people find their best next step.
National Apprenticeships Week – Monday 10th – Sunday 16th of February 2025
Next week is National Apprenticeship Week and we know that many of you will already have a week of activities planned. We would love to hear about your week , both the successes and the lessons learnt! Please share with you careers consultant so we can make sure you are included in a ‘Celebrating Successes’ feature at the start of next term.
If you don’t have anything planned for next week here are a few quick wins
Apprenticeship Arcade – Engage students in your classroom, or set them enjoyable (yet educational) home learning tasks through the brilliant Apprenticeship Arcade. The suite of games will provide interactive and fun ways for students to explore and learn about apprenticeships, whilst working in groups or individually.
Display Materials – use this apprenticeship display materials bundle to create engaging and informative careers displays, including the Digital Display Pack, Apprentice Story Film Posters and an updated A-Z of Apprenticeship Traits Poster.
Subject display screens – a collection of subject-led display screens to be used around your school or college. The display screens focus on 20 school subjects and the many apprenticeship roles they link with. Each display screen highlights a range of apprentice roles linked to the subject to help inspire your students to think more broadly about their options!
We hope you are all settling into the new term, we have shorter update for you this week. Thank you to all of you that attended our Term 2 Kick Off meeting. You can view the slides from this briefing here.
All Careers Leaders should now have received a calendar invite to our first masterclass of the term which will be a 30 minute virtual session with an additional 15 minutes Q&A and discussion. This is taking place on Thursday 30th January and will cover Internal Leadership reviews including how careers can be positioned as a driver for school, special school and college improvement, the benefits for Careers Leaders and an opportunity to hear from local careers leads that have recently undertake an Internal Leadership Review.
If you would like to attend and have not received a calendar invite please email careershub@southmidlands.org.uk
Reminder – Key Dates for the Spring Term
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
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
Adding a volunteering opportunity to our Careers Hub Website
It has been great to see the variety of career learning opportunities taking place across the South Midlands! We though it would be helpful to share some feedback and tips on how to make your volunteer requests stand out.
Increase engagement by adding a photo from a previous event or if not your school/college logo
Remember to ensure you give enough information and a full description of the activity easily understood by someone outside of education
Offer flexibility where possible for volunteers that may not be available for the duration of the event
Volunteers love to feel valued, include how them volunteering will impact students
Don’t forget to proof read your content
Add events as far in advance as possible
Show your appreciation by capturing volunteers in a photo and or sharing some student/staff feedback on the impact they have had. We now produce a termly newsletter for our volunteers and this type of content would really help encourage more volunteers. Please share any potential content with your Careers Consultant or email careershub@southmidlands.org.uk
We hope you have had a great festive break and are feeling well rested and refreshed! As we ease ourselves into 2025 we wanted to celebrate our current volunteers and share volunteering opportunities for businesses and individuals across The South Midlands to support our young people to become career ready!
For those of you new to South Midlands Careers Hub (previously South Midlands careers Hub, SEMLEP) we are the strategic arm of the Department for Education (DfE) responsible for supporting schools and colleges to improve the careers provision. We currently support 152 schools and colleges across Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. Our mission is to strengthen business and education links locally and build career-ready young people. Employers are vital to help bridge the gap between education and employment and there are lots of ways you can support young people and school leaders, provide personal development for your staff and identify new talent.
Partner with one of our schools or colleges as an Industry Partner
Enterprise Advisers partner with a school or college for a period of time, offering careers education support from an industry perspective, as a consultant, critical friend and coach, or to support a specific project. This is an great opportunity to make a real and lasting impact in the community.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Massive shout out to our Industry Partners (previously known as Enterprise Advisers) who provided a match to one of our schools or colleges in 2024
Miss Leanne Walton, Ms Rosalind Chisholm
Ms Charlene Jerman
Mr Timothy Mason
Mr Richard Cooper
Mr James Bryant
Mrs Lorraine Emerton
Ms Emma Adams
Ms Ruth Devine
Ms Laureen Kinsella, Mrs Lesley McNeill
Miss Kerri Skingle, Ms Hannah Fehr
Mr Tatenda Ward
Mr Manish Amriwala
Ms Aimee Gomez
Mr Max Deans
Mr Nick Levens
Ms Sally Wood
Mr Joshua Keating
Ms Michelle Theuma
Mr (Philip) Ian Ashcroft
Mr James Petrides
Mr John Allen
Mrs Wendy Ingram
Ms Paula Grayson
Mr Richard Last
Mr Callum Hutchinson
Ms Mari Paduos
Mr Charlie Wood, Ms Alys Martin
Mr Colin Rodden
Mr James Stancombe
Mrs Alison Thompson
Ms Marie Jones
Mr Richard Osborne
Mrs Leona Gerald-Okoli
Mr Adam Fox
Mr Simon Wheeler
Ms Sara Simpson
Mr Peter Swallow
Mrs Rebecca Hudson
Mrs Rebecca Newman
Mr Jonathan Bates
Mrs Elizabeth Albone
Mrs Helen Russell
Ms Liz Allister
Mr Ian Stewart
Mr Sunny Singh
Mr Julian Winch
Mrs Debbie Dymock
Ms Siobhan Godden
Mr Anthony McCool
Mr Paul Turney
Mr Thomas Cliffe
Mr Gav O’Brien
Mr Stephen Kimbell
Mr Richard Halderthay
Mr Tanpreet Bhachu
Ms Fay Field, Ms Natasha Rose
Mr James Cooke
Ms Raswella Warburton
Miss Hannah Dunford, Ms Loraine Thomas
Ms Hannah Gifford
Mrs Lydia Selby
Ms Hannah Sears
Mr Ade Abimbola, Mr Justin Hammond
Ms Anna Ganapathee, Dr Susan Izadkhasti
Mr Neil Walcuch
Mr David Gilmour
New Industry Partner Matches
Pictured above, 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.
A huge welcome to Adam and our other new Industry Partners who we have listed below
Agnieszka Smith, easyJet
Celine McGuigan, easyJet
Lydia Selby, University of Northampton
Natalie Gibbings, Aiimi
Charlotte Sykes, CWR Consultancy
Elaine Kendall, Kori Construction
Kushilka Zaharia, easyJet
Sandra Trew, Get Real Parental Coaching
Wendy Ingram, easyJet
Lucy Randall
Robin Evans, easyJet
Industry Partner Vacancies
We are keen to ensure that all young people across the South Midlands benefit from the support of an Industry partner. The schools below do not currently benefit from am Industry Partner. If you live, work or are Alumni from one of these schools and interested in a match please let us know, email careershub@southmidlands.org.uk
Alameda Middle School
Arnold Academy
Bedford College
Bedford Free School
Biddenham International School and Sports College
Biggleswade Academy
Billing Brook Special School
Bishop Stopford School
Brooke Weston Academy
Brooklands Middle School
Campion School
Castle Newnham School
Corby Business Academy
Corby Technical School
Creating Tomorrow College
Daubeney Academy
Daventry Hill School
Denbigh School
DSLV E-ACT Academy
E-Act Ousedale School
Edward Peake CofE VC School
Elizabeth Woodville School
Friars Academy
Fulbrook
Gilbert Inglefield Academy
Grange Academy
Greenfields Specialist School for Communication
Greys Education Centre
Harlington Upper School
Holywell School
Hospital and Outreach Education
Houstone School
Huxlow Academy
Ivel Valley School & College
Kents Hill Park all-through school
Kettering Science Academy
Kimberley 16 – 19 Stem College
Kingsthorpe College
Kingswood Secondary Academy
Leighton Middle School
Linslade School
Magdalen College School
Manshead Church of England Academy
Maplefields Academy
Marston Vale Middle School
Montsaye Academy
Moulton College
Northampton Academy
Northampton College
Northampton School
Northampton School for Boys
Northampton School for Girls
Oakhill Secure Training Centre
Parkfields Middle School
Pix Brook Academy
Prince William School
Priory Academy
Purple Oaks Academy
Queensbury Academy
Red Kite Academy
Ridgeway School
Robert Bloomfield Academy
Sandy Secondary School
Silverstone UTC
Sir Christopher Hatton Academy
Slated Row School
St John’s School
St Thomas More Catholic School
The Ferrers School
The Gateway School
The Latimer Arts College
The Milton Keynes Academy
Thomas Becket Catholic School
Weatherfield Academy
Weavers Academy
Weston Favell Academy
Windmill Hill School
Wixams Academy
Woodland Middle School Academy
Wootton Upper School
Wren Spinney Community School
Industry Champions
Our Industry Champions inspire and help prepare young people for the world of work. Volunteer requests from our schools and colleges are advertised here. This is an opportunity to share your knowledge, insights and experience on an ad-hoc basis. Current activities include speed networking, year 7 networking, dragons den activity, business breakfast and real life math activity.
Business Breakfast Networking Event – Wrenn School, Wellingborough
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 AIEP Coles, Careers Consultant and Debbie Dymock RCDP, 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.
Successful collaboration between Tui and Luton Sixth Form
The collaboration between TUI and Luton Sixth Form College represents a significant partnership aimed at enhancing educational and career opportunities for students. This partnership leverages the strengths of both institutions to provide students with practical experiences and insights into the travel and tourism industry. TUI sees the partnership with Luton Sixth Form College as part of a broader strategy to invest in local communities and nurture future talent. By partnering with educational institutions, TUI aims to bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world application, ensuring that students are well-prepared for careers in the tourism sector.
TUI support Luton Sixth Form College students by offering career inspiration days. These days allow the students to visit the head office and become immersed in the TUI culture whilst learning about the different roles on offer and entry points into the business. The students also engage in practical activities, focusing on teambuilding, teamwork and collaboration and presentation skills. Some of TUI’s pilot and engineering team have also visited the college to deliver talks around our MPL (multi-pilot license) programme and our engineering apprenticeship opportunities that the students can apply for. The Emerging Talent Team also support the colleges careers fairs and offer pop-up stands at different points of the year to provide information on current and upcoming vacancies and apprenticeship programmes.
TUI have recruited many Luton Sixth Form Alumni into the business. For our emerging talent programmes, we recruited two students in our most recent campaign. Charlotte, one of our new commercial apprentices from Luton Sixth Form said ‘Throughout my time at school and college, I had several interactions with the TUI team. I remember coming away feeling excited about the opportunities that they offered! These memories helped me find a pathway to my current role on the apprenticeship which still gives me that same excited feeling!’
TUI hopes to continue to build the relationships we have with Luton Sixth Form College and continue to support the recruitment of students from the local area by providing key insights and local opportunities.
easyJet collaboration to apprenticeship success for Challney High School for Boys student
As a large local 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”.
Milton Keynes Industry partners have had a busy autumn term
MK Industry Partners and Champions have been busy over the past term supporting with school enterprise activities, experiences of the workplace, mentoring, assemblies, careers fairs and even arranging the MK STEM festival. Santander kindly hosted a tour of Unity Place (I didn’t know there is a microbrewery that uses the surplus bread and leftover loaves from the on-site bakery!) It was great to show students the range of careers available, not only at Santander, but also within Unity Place.
Share Your Volunteering Story
If you have a volunteering story we would love to hear from you so we can share as part of our next Hub Newsletter for Industry. Please email details to careershub@southmidlnds.org.uk
Find Out More
Our schools and colleges run many events throughout the year where they require the support of Industry Champions. As an Industry Champion you are able to view all current volunteering opportunities here and express your interest in attending these.
Take a look at our latest Industry Champion volunteering opportunities here
Want to find out more about what we do/ Join our Hub Leads Wednesday 22nd January for a Careers Hub Introduction. This will be virtual via Teams, Email us careershub@southmidlands.org.uk if you would like to attend.
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
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!
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 parentsand 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.
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.
If you have 5 minutes… Watch our animation to learn how the Careers Impact internal leadership review can help drive excellence in your careers provision.
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
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
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.
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:
We hope you have enjoyed a successful start to the 2024-25 academic year. We kicked of the year with a bang with our annual Careers Hub conference in partnership with the South Midlands Growth Hub, and the launch of our website. More information below!
Careers Hub Updates
Staffing We have appointed a new Strategic Hub Lead for the Careers Hub. We are delighted to say that Yvonne Ashby will be taking on the role. We will therefore be recruiting for an Operational Hub Lead in the near future – watch this space!
Term 1 Kick Off If you missed it, please do take a look at the slides from our online term 1 kick off meeting. This is something we will be running at the start of each term and is a 30 minute overview of all of the headlines for the coming term.
Career Leader Survey We would appreciate it if any Careers Leaders could take the time to complete our Career Leader survey
Website Launch We are really excited to launch our new South Midlands Careers Hub website. Please do visit and familiarise yourself with the content. Resources will continue to be added over the coming weeks and months (you may need to register on the site to access some of these), and we would like to encourage our schools and colleges and partners to use the site to share their own news and events. Some key links below:
Partner News/Events (please do not use this to request volunteers or exhibitors for events), partners please upload events/news such as open day dates and good news stories: Partner News / Events – South Midlands Careers Hub
Annual Conference – 24.09.2024 Thank you to the 203 delegates who joined our annual conference this month, to our keynote speaker Ryan Gibson from the Gatsby Foundation, and to our amazing panellists and exhibitors on the day. We had some great feedback from delegates and have including some comments below. Access the slides from the day here.
‘Great to network and meet from different sectors. Good to hear about developments coming up and things to look out for. It highlights the level of support that is available’
‘First time at one of these events. It was great to meet people and I found the workshops really informative’
‘Discussions about bridging the skills gap with employers, panellists and education was insightful and will help in my role as an Industry Partner’
Support for Careers Leaders
New Career Leader induction with Hub Leads – Thursday 24th October 3:30pm – 4:30pm. Email careershub@semlep.com to be sent the meeting link
This academic year our amazing Careers Hub Ambassadors Stacey Morris, Lee Nelson and Alyce Harriswill be offering small group online support sessions covering the areas below. These will last between 30 and 60 minutes. If you are interested, please add your details and area of interest here.
SEND – Embedding Careers in the Curriculum BM3 & BM4
SEND – Enterprise projects BM6
SEND – First steps in employer engagement BM5
SEND – Cementing employer relationships BM5 & 6
SEND – Valuing your work all BMs
Mainstream – Developing a whole school stable careers programme BM1
Mainstream – support to embed LMI within curriculum learning and parental engagement BM3
Mainstream – Meaningful ways to enable encounters with employers and employees and link to the curriculum. BM4 & 5
