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!
