Category: Careers Hub

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.

• 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.
• If you have 20 minutes… Read the Gatsby Benchmarks update FAQs which offer support for any questions you may have.
• If you have more than one hour… Read the “Good Career Guidance: The Next Ten Years” report to understand the rationale behind the benchmark updates.
• Looking for more? Explore our Resource Directory to find world-class, trusted, high-quality resources to help you plan, grow and achieve.

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 21^st 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.

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 18^th 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 21^st 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.

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:

Provider Opportunities

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

Please click here to access our latest newsletter.