Introduction
Careers Education and Guidance is a vital part of the educational process by which young people, from the earliest years, develop the abilities to make realistic and well-informed decisions about their future. At Holy Family, we do this by:
- helping pupils to identify their skills and interests, as well as working out what they want from life
- educating pupils about the world of work and options open to them, then assisting them to make vocational choices, considering long term changes in the job market
- developing pupils career management, employability and enterprise skills
- individual academic, pastoral and careers support from a range of staff, including our qualified careers adviser
In developing our Careers Education and Guidance provision for students, we have used the Gatsby Benchmarks.
Careers Education and Guidance Policy
Careers Contacts:
Holy Family Catholic High School, Virgins Lane, Thornton, L23 4UL
0151 924 6451
Karen Parker – Careers Leader k.parker@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Claire Hall – Careers Leader c.hall@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Jan McKean – Inclusion Manager and Employer and Outside Agency Link jan@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Margaret Evans – Vice Chair of Governing Body and Careers Link Governor c/o s.harris@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter @careersHFCHS
We are proud to have as our careers external providers Jayne North and her team at Career North. info@careernorth.co.uk
We have several exceptional Career North advisors working with us including:
Jayne North, Fabrina Lasborg, Megan Ferris and Christy Bradley – careers@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Their website: https://www.careernorth.co.uk/
For click here further information about Career North Ltd.
The content of this webpage, and the additional pages below, are reviewed annually (Date of next review January 2024).
Evaluating Impact
We measure and assess the impact of our careers education and guidance programme via following up our Year 11 and 6th Form leavers to find out their destinations (in case this differs from what was planned) on leaving. We gather feedback from pupils on the personal development programme on a continual basis and evaluate this during the summer term of each year, as part of updating the Careers and Enterprise Company's Compass evaluation tool, with the support of our Enterprise Advisor. From September 2019 we have been using the Compass tool on a termly basis.
Pupil Destinations
Parents
Careers Programme
Careers Education is mainly delivered as part of the personal development programme, throughout the school.
In addition to this, we arrange:
- assemblies on careers related topics
- visits to employers and careers related events
- a careers fair at school in the summer term
- careers related input in each subject (particularly during National Careers Week, in March each year)
- apprenticeship application support and workshops for Year 11s and 13s
Any questions, please contact:
Karen Parker – Careers Leader
Tel: 0151 924 6451
k.parker@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Personal Guidance
Impartial* personal career guidance discussions are routinely organised for our year 11, 12 and 13 pupils but all pupils are welcome to one or more meetings with our qualified careers advisers. Pupils in any year group can request a career guidance interview via Student Services or by emailing careers@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk. Summaries are recorded on Class Charts, so you can see what has been discussed too.
*meaning we do not recommend any institution over others, but make pupils aware of all options and institutions and allow them to form their own preferences, based on factors such as travel, experience on a visit, course availability etc.
Parents/carers are also welcome to request or attend a careers interview for their son or daughter etc, by using the same email address or ringing 0151 924 6451 and speaking to anyone from Student Services.
In addition to this, our Careers Adviser is available at parents evenings' from year 9 and at the Sixth Form open evening, as well as being on hand to provide support at GCSE and A level results days.
Post-16 Options
Since the law changed, young people have to be ‘in some form of education or training until they are 18’. This includes:
- A sixth form
- A full time college course
- A part time college course
- An apprenticeship
(What it doesn’t include is a job that doesn’t include training for any qualifications.) As a result, there are many options available for after year 11.
It is sensible to explore more than one option or institution, to work out for yourself, where is best for your son or daughter, rather than relying on other peoples’ opinions. You can help by:
- Going to open evenings with them
- Completing online applications with them or checking they have completed their applications
- Taking them to any interviews
- Asking where they are up to with plans for after year 11
- Putting them in touch with any friends or family you have that know about the careers they are interested in
Apprenticeships are a great option but can be hard to secure. For general information on apprenticeships, have a look at this fact sheet (link to my finding apprenticeships document). You can help by:
- Asking family and friends if they know of any apprenticeship opportunities
- Discussing or roleplaying visiting an employer to ask about apprenticeships and also taking your son or daughter there if possible (The Yellow Pages or yell.com is a great way of finding which employers are in your area.)
- Checking applications before they send them off
- Taking them to interviews and discussing your experience of job interview with them
Useful Websites
Careers - Parents
Pupils
Personal Guidance
Personal career guidance discussions are routinely organised for year 11, 12 and 13 pupils but all pupils are welcome to one or more meetings with our qualified careers advisers at Career North, Jayne North, Holly Jones and Zack North. Pupils in any year group can request a career guidance interview via Student Services or by emailing careers@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk. Summaries are recorded on Class Charts, so if you forget anything from your discussion, you can easily look it up on there.
Your parents/carers are also welcome to come to your careers interview, if you would like. Speak to anyone in the POD, to let us know.
Our Careers Adviser is also available at parents evenings' from year 9 and at the Sixth Form open evening, as well as being on hand to provide support at GCSE and A level results days.
Careers Lessons
You will learn about issues related to careers as part of the personal development programme, which takes place throughout your time at school.
In addition to this, we arrange:
- assemblies on careers related topics
- visits to employers and careers related events
- a careers fair at school in the summer term
- careers related input in each subject (particularly during National Careers Week, in March each year)
- apprenticeship application support and workshops for Year 11s and 13s
For any questions, speak to your form tutor or head of year or ask in Student Services. You can also speak to:
Karen Parker – Careers Leader – office next to M25
Career North – Careers Advisers – email careers@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Choosing careers
There are 4 main steps to choosing a career:
- Knowing yourself: your interests, work preferences, strengths and weaknesses
- Exploring what careers exist
- Researching, in detail, careers that interest you the most
- Planning how to get into your chosen career
You will have heard of a lot of careers but there are hundreds of different careers in the UK. You could easily miss something you would really like if you don’t do some exploring. To find out what careers relate to lessons or other things that interest you, type it into the search box on: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/, for example…
A great way of getting some idea of what careers might suit you, is to use a ‘career matching website’. For a basic version (recommended for years 7 to 9), go to The Buzz Quiz at https://icould.com/. For a more detailed one, register at www.startprofile.com. The Start site is recommended from year 10 upwards and is used in lessons.
Who can help?
The school’s Careers Adviser can help, for example talking through information with you and helping you to compare options and telling you more about routes into careers and local courses/options that would fit.
Teachers and parents can help you work out your strengths and weaknesses and may know more about careers that interest you.
Post-16 Options
You must be ‘in some form of education or training until you are 18’. This includes the following forms of education and training:
- A sixth form
- A full time college course
- A part time college course
- An apprenticeship
(What it doesn’t include is a job that doesn’t include training for any qualifications.) As a result, there are many options available for after your GCSEs.
It is sensible to explore more than one option or institution, to work out for yourself, where is best for you, rather than relying on other peoples’ opinions. When looking into different options, there are some questions you should consider:
- If you’ve done it before, do you enjoy the subject?
- How is it assessed? (Do you prefer coursework or exam?)
- How does it differ from GCSEs? What topics will you be learning?
- How do your teachers feel you will cope with it? Do they have concerns?
- What have people, who have done this course/apprenticeship before, gone on to do next? What grades did they get?
- Where is it based? Is there help available with the cost of transport?
- Are there any opportunities for work experience?
- What GCSE grades do you need to get on the course/apprenticeship?
- What qualification(s) would you get from doing this?
Finally, do NOT choose a course simply because it looks good or because your friend is studying it! Choose it for the simple reason that you enjoy it and it could relate to what you want to do in the future.
For more detail, try this site: I Could.
What jobs are available – “Labour Market Information”
Labour Market Information tells us:
- What jobs are available?
- How many are there?
- Where are they?
- How do you get into them?
- Future Trends
You can use this information to work out which jobs are easiest to get where and how much people get paid, on average, in different career areas AND how this is expected to change. History is littered with careers that disappeared and you need to make sure you don’t choose something that will disappear.
This ‘Careerometer’ (the 3 boxes below) is something you can use to look careers up and get basic labour market information.
Careers - Pupils
Useful Websites
Teachers
In developing our Careers Education and Guidance provision for students, we have used the Gatsby Benchmarks.
We have mapped our personal development programme (within which most of our Careers Education is delivered) against the Careers Development Institute’s Framework for Careers, Employability and Enterprise Education (http://www.thecdi.net/Careers-Framework-2018), to ensure we are meeting all the careers learning outcomes recommended for young people.
In addition to this, we arrange:
- assemblies on careers related topics
- visits to employers and careers related events
- a careers fair at school in the summer term
- careers related input in each subject (particularly during National Careers Week, in March each year)
- regular apprenticeship application workshops for Year 11s and 13s
Including Careers in Your Lessons
This is not just about teaching what careers exist, although expanding pupils’ knowledge and horizons is hugely valuable. So many skills area learned at school that are applied in the workplace.
The CDI Framework for Careers Employability and Enterprise Education (www.thecdi.net/write/BP556-CDI-Framework-web.pdf) includes the following areas of learning:
- Self-awareness
- Self-determination
- Self improvement as a learner
- Exploring careers and career development
- Investigating work and working life
- Understanding business and industry
- Investigating jobs and labour market information
- Valuing equality, diversity and inclusion
- Learning about safe working practices and environments
- Making the most of careers information advice and guidance
- Preparing for employability
- Showing initiative and enterprise
- Developing personal financial capability
- Identifying choices and opportunities
- Planning and deciding
- Handling applications and interviews
- Managing changes and transitions
For suggestions of what topics could be included in each subject, please click here
For information on the value of careers related learning in all subjects, please look at: www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/sites/default/files/uploaded/careers_in_the_curriculum_report_what_works.pdf
For further information, please contact:
Karen Parker – Careers Leader
Tel: 0151 924 6451
k.parker@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Career North advisors working with us are Jayne North, Holly Jones and Zack North – careers@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Useful Websites
Careers - Teachers
Employers and other providers
Employers
We are currently in the process of expanding our employer network, to provide a broader range of opportunities for our students, knowing the great value that employer contact has, in developing young people’s aspirations and motivation. (Please see these links for supporting research:
https://www.educationandemployers.org/research/employerengagementineducation/
Events that employers are now involved with:
- Annual Careers Fair (with ‘speed-dating’ element for year 10s)
- Assemblies
- Workshops such as ‘Employment Law’, ‘Budgeting’ and ‘What Employers Want’
- Mock interviews
- Work experience
- Off-site visits to workplaces and Careers Fairs
If you are interested in joining our Employer Network or supporting our careers programme in some way, however small, we would be very happy to hear from you. Please email Mrs J McKean at jan@holyfamilyhighschool.co.uk
Other providers
All pupils in years 7-10 and year 12, attend our summer annual careers fair, which is integrated into the school’s careers programme. This offers providers an opportunity to come into school to speak to pupils. Other opportunities are available, such as assemblies, personal development lessons and parents evenings, by prior arrangement.
Providers are also welcome to provide printed materials for pupils to access in the Sixth Form Resource area and POD.
Our Provider Access Policy
An introduction to Apprenticeships for students
Apprenticeships
Careers information
Careers Newsletters
We are pleased to offer a range of vital support and guidance for your child on A-level or GCSE results days as follows:
- School support on the day (face-to-face). This includes support to email or telephone college, university, employers, or apprenticeship providers. The team can also help with finding new or alternative placements.
- School Cloud (online) bookable appointments (15mins) for students/parents will be available on results day for you to talk to our independent Careers Adviser.
- Students/parents can contact careers advisers at Career North for immediate and future enquiries on and after results day. By providing your telephone number/email addresses the Careers Adviser will follow up and contact you by telephone (number withheld) and/or email on the day and the next day.
- Career North results day FAQs (GCSE/A Level) may answer any questions you have - see below. Please also see https://www.careernorth.co.uk/ or email info@careernorth.co.uk
Results Fact Sheets
Related News
