About
Careers Guidance

Good careers guidance connects learning to the future. It motivates young people by giving them a clearer idea of the routes to jobs and careers that they will find engaging and rewarding. Good careers guidance widens pupils’ horizons, challenges stereotypes and raises aspirations. It provides pupils with the knowledge and skills necessary to make successful transitions to the next stage of their life.

At Unity College our Careers provision is highly effective.  We measure ourselves using the Gatsby Charitable Foundations Benchmarks.  The eight benchmarks provide us with a framework that helps us to identify our strengths and find areas that we can improve on, which we do constantly.  Our Careers provision to is linked to our college values of Unity, Passion and Respect to ensure that all students are supported to become responsible citizens with the tools to gain qualifications and employment in areas they are passionate about.

Careers Guidance and access for education and training providers is predominantly delivered through our iD programme (PSCHE) where all local post 16 providers have an active input.  MPloy Guidance Services provide our impartial, individual career guidance.

Our careers leader, a link Governor and our Enterprise Coordinator at Inspira ensure that all students actively engage with employers within our classrooms.  For external employer engagement, such as site visits, work experience, we work with our local Education Business Partnership (NW) LTD. company.

The ever growing list of employer engagement includes:

NatWest Bank; Myerscough College and Vets; Fullwood Barracks; HMRC; Giant Leap Child Care and Learning Centre; ESSA Barnoldswick; Burnley Magistrates Court; Burnley Football Club; 2BR Radio;  Liberata LTD Nelson; Promethean World; Willow Bank Care Centre; UCLAN Preston; UK Fast Manchester; VEKA Capita; British Velvets; Royal Air force/BAE Systems; CHESS; AMS Neve;  Paradigm; Scoped solutions.

So that our students can start to understand their local labour market a range of activities are organised.

The tasks are age appropriate and will be completed in Personal Development (PD) time.  To keep abreast of what is offered in Lancashire you can follow the link below. www.lancashireskillshub.co.uk

Each activity related to the world of work is tracked against every individual’s name.  This ensures that all students are exposed to the maximum employer engagement or further education opportunities, enterprise and careers planning as possible.

Our curriculum plan ensures that we provide students with a wide range of opportunities to experience a range of employer engagement opportunities, careers guidance and employability skills.

Year

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

7

Restart a Heart

Burnley College Sessions

8

Olympian

Burnley College Sessions

9

Speed Networking

Burnley College Sessions

10

Burnley College Sessions

Careers Interviews

University life and funding sessions

Careers Interviews

Employer Engagement Programme

College Visits

11

Careers Interviews

College talks from local providers

Mock Interviews

College Application Support

Second Careers Interview available

College Application support

Careers Interviews

Careers guidance interviews offer support and advice about post 16 options they can also help pupils to recognise their skills qualities and interests so that they can make well informed and realistic decisions about their future career.

During the interview a Careers Action Plan is completed which contains information from the discussion and any action points that might need to be completed. Students in years 10 and 11 have a one-to-one careers guidance interview. Students from other year groups can access a careers advisor by request through Mrs Stewart or Mrs Hammond-Phillips.

College applications

The year 11 page – here – links to all the local post-16 providers.  It has the details for all upcoming open events.  This is updated regularly.

You also have access to Start – Careers Information for Lancashire (startprofile.com).  Log into this using your office 365 login details.  This will help to inform your choices for your next steps, identify courses you may be interested in and link you through to a wide range of routs through higher education.

Other resources

Career ideas http://www.icould.com ,icould is a small, dynamic charity, providing career inspiration and information for young people. We show what is possible in work and offer different ways to think about careers through free access to over 1000 personal video stories, detailed job information, plus practical tips, insight and advice.

Course Ideas https://www.studying-in-uk.org/apprenticeships-uk/ This site helps users to explore career and study options.It shows the link between what you study, what you earn and the jobs you can get.

https://www.gov.uk/careers-helpline-for-teenagers A Government helpline where you can request a call back from an adviser Parents wishing to help their teenagers.

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk  The National Careers Service has lots of useful information for you to look at and research your career ideas further. There is a dedicated section for schools. The job profiles provide information on every known career available to date.

Apprenticeships www.apprenticeships.gov.uk The apprenticeship website provides the latest news and information on apprenticeships and schemes, including types of apprenticeships, apprentice employers and tips on how to apply for vacancies. http://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship This site advertises all current apprenticeships; pupils can register and apply for actual apprenticeship vacancies in their area.

There are lots of websites advertising a wide range of apprenticeship opportunities – register with them all!

Key contact name, role & email Mrs Z Hammond-Phillips / Assistant Headteacher z.hammond-phillips@unity.lancs.sch.uk 01282 683010

The provider access policy and the careers and guidance policy can be found here.