Careers

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Careers


At SMA we believe we have a substantial Careers programme which prepares all our learners to be confident individuals and responsible citizens.

Intent

  • Social mobility is vital for an efficient economy and a happy nation and sadly England does not always score well in this regard.
  • Schools’ Careers Teams have a vital role to play in improving that situation by nurturing ambition and countering any culture of low aspirations.
  • Our aim is to prepare all pupils for future success by providing a full programme of careers advice, information and guidance that is stable, structured and encourages ambitious future choices.
  • We will also provide good quality meaningful opportunities for them to encounter both the world of work and other education/training providers.
  • Access our Provider Access Policy (currently under review)

Implementation

  • Our career’s pathway is a whole school approach that draws extensively on outside agencies, parent and business volunteers, our local Enterprise Hub and a strong in-house team.
  • Pre- 14 our strategic priority is that all students aim high and are equipped with the knowledge to help them do so. AS early as Year 7 students have careers education to encourage them to analyse their own skills and strengths and start relating them to possible career paths. We organise appropriate enterprise events, employer encounters and timely advice and guidance ready for the options process in Year 9.
  • At least one guidance interview, a work experience placement, employer talks, mock employability interviews and enterprise events all take place at Key Stage 4. In line with our intent, we have bespoke interventions to help support individual needs across both Key Stages.
  • Along post 16 work (employer encounters, visits to at least 2 university establishments) we are focussing greatly on raising students’ University choice aspirations seeking to increase the number of successful Russell Group and Oxbridge applications.

Impact

  • We track our progress towards meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks using the Career Enterprise Company’s Compass Plus tool.
  • This tool shows our progress and highlights our current quality work as well as giving a clear steer for our next steps.
  • Post event evaluations also helps us identify how events can be improved and their effectiveness.
  • We also believe that work experience placements are a good influence on the aspirations and confidence levels of the students concerned. Ultimately, however our impact is best measures through our Destinations Data which illustrates the proportion of post 16 students going on to study at prestigious universities or as apprentices.

 

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