Pupils for whom it is appropriate have the opportunity to attend careers fairs to develop their careers information, advice and guidance about a range of opportunities including technical and academic education, apprenticeships, traineeships and supported internships. This is also a great opportunity for parents and staff to develop their knowledge and understanding.

National Careers Service (NCS)

The NCS provides over-the-telephone and online careers services to 13-18 year olds with information, advice and guidance on learning, training and work opportunities. The NCS website contains over 750 job profiles, and each of them gives you the essential information you need on what the job involves and how to get into it. The site also has a job market information section about the job situation in our local area and you can also talk to an adviser – www.nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk.  The service offers confidential and impartial advice, supported by qualified careers advisers.

The NCS aims to:

• Help people with careers decisions and planning
• Support people in reviewing their skills and abilities and develop new goals
• Motivate people to implement their plan of action
• Enable people to make the best use of high quality career related tools.

The NCS is working to improve its offer to SEND schools and colleges. They currently offer digital workshops free of charge, delivered to classes for up to 30 minutes on a range of topics. There are also a range of E-Teaching and Learning resources available to use. At Kingsweston we encourage pupils and parents to explore the websites information.

External Partners

We invite employers and previous students (alumni) to school to speak with students about the world of work, college and opportunities available. We are committed to this practice as we find it is more meaningful and moves teaching and learning into the real-world context.

Employers may be able to;

• Volunteer and attend events
• Mentor and give students/staff advice
• Deliver business presentations or workshops
• Provide students with a taste of life at work
• Offer mock interviews

Jobcentre Plus (JCP)

We work with Jobcentre Plus to support us to explore routes into traineeships and apprenticeship, broker work experience opportunities, deliver impartial careers advice sessions, mock interview and soft skills development whilst being a critical friend and support mechanism to develop our careers work across the school. The JCP are working closely with many other organisations which bring a wealth of knowledge to the school. They have also provided access to an online careers portal suitable for our students to learn a wealth of information around careers at their own pace.

Independent and Impartial Careers Information, Advice and Guidance

We are aware of our statutory duty to secure access to independent, impartial careers guidance for pupils. We understand that it is crucial for young people to have high quality and impartial information and guidance to get the most out of their learning, to enable successful progression from one stage to another and to inform the important choices that young people make for future career aspirations. The advice given includes information regarding supported internships for young people with EHCPs, traineeships, apprenticeships and qualifications that will enable young people to study at higher education, where appropriate. We ensure that parents are part of this process to ensure a collaborative approach.

Where relevant, pupils are made aware that good career choices require good understanding of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects. They are informed that they will carry on learning English and maths whilst working towards a minimum of a grade 4 (C) at GCSE whilst they continue in education and training.

Pupils are also given advice and guidance from staff members that have known them for a long time, helping students to explore their options, holistically. This may be during EHCP reviews, PSHE or specific CEIAG lessons.

Careersoft Job Explorer database.

Step One:

https://chas.careersoft.co.uk/jed/Login.aspx

Step two: Visit the sign-in page and enter access code: 7yvu42dx

Step three: Remember to press Enter

Step four: Press Yes that's me and click onto Job Explorer Data Base

Step 5:Click on either Jed or First Jed depending on your child's understanding and comprehension: Explore Careersoft - you could start with completing the quiz and this will offer you suggestions about careers that link to your interests. Or you might want to look at videos of different jobs.