Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG)

St Peter’s Catholic School is dedicated to ensuring that all our pupils are fully prepared their future pathway, whether that is towards further or higher education, apprenticeships, jobs or gap years. We make it our responsibility to ensure that pupils are prepared for their next step and work hard in inspiring our pupils to strive for their best for their own futures.

Careers Team

Mrs L Przyrodzki - Aspirations and KS5/4 Careers Leader- przyrodzkil@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk

Mrs J Cross Careers Leader- Aspirations and KS3 Careers Leader crossj@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk

Mrs S Shelton PSHE Co-ordinator Sheltons@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk

Ms A Keane Senior Leadership Team Responsibility for Careers keanea@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk

Mrs E Schofield Governor Responsibility for Careers Contact through the Secretary to the Governors Mrs T Donnelly, donnellyt@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk

Students can ask for Careers support by emailing careers@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk.

Gatsby Benchmarks

Our careers plan supports the achievement of the eight Gatsby benchmarks:

Benchmark 1: A Stable Careers Programme Every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education and guidance that is known and understood by Pupils, parents, teachers, governors and employers.

Benchmark 2: Learning from Career and Labour Market Information Every Pupil and their parents should have access to good quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities. They will need the support of an informed adviser to make the best use of available information

Benchmark 3: Addressing the Needs of Each Pupil Pupils have different career guidance needs at different stages. Opportunities for advice and support need to be tailored to the needs of each Pupil. A school’s careers programme should embed equality and diversity considerations throughout.

Benchmark 4: Linking Curriculum Learning to Careers

All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers. STEM subject teachers should highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of careers paths.

Benchmark 5: Encounters with Employers and Employees Every Pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. This can be through a range of enrichment activities including visiting speakers, mentoring and enterprise schemes.

Benchmark 6: Experiences of Workplaces Every Pupil should have first-hand experience of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing, and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks.

Benchmark 7: Encounters with Further and Higher Education All Pupils should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace.

Provider access legislation

The provider access legislation is new guidance that comes into force from January 2023, which builds on Benchmark 7 and adds new specific requirements for schools. It is a key mechanism to further help learners understand and take-up, not just apprenticeships, but wider technical education options such as T-Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications.

 

The updated provider access legislation (PAL) specifies schools must provide at least six encounters for all their students:

· Two encounters for pupils during the ‘first key phase’ (year 8 or 9) that are mandatory for all pupils to attend

· Two encounters for pupils during the ‘second key phase’ (year 10 or 11) that are mandatory for all pupils to attend

· Two encounters for pupils during the ‘third key phase’ (year 12 or 13) that are mandatory for the school to put on but optional for pupils to attend

Benchmark 8: Personal Guidance Every Pupil should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a careers adviser, who could be internal (a member of school staff) or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level. These should be available whenever significant study or career choices are being made. They should be expected for all Pupils but should be timed to meet their individual needs.

Our ongoing performance against the Gatsby Benchmarks Click here (link to ‘St-Peters-Gatsby-Progress-Chart’)

Unifrog Careers Online Tool

All pupils at St Peter’s have their own Unifrog access, which they can access using their login details and by visiting Sign In - Unifrog this has been emailed to every student on their school email address. If a student does not know their details, please email the Careers Team careers@st-peters.solihull.sch.uk.

Unifrog is the universal destinations platform, designed to connect students aged 11-18 with their future career potential. It combines the most comprehensive source of information with a personalised experience and career planning tools, helping our Pupils to make more informed decisions about their future study and career options, as well as developing their employability. Unifrog includes:

· A Pupil profile: pupils can build their unique career profile through online quizzes these include interests profile, personality profile, work environments profile and a skills profile.

· Exploring pathways: students can access a range of up-to-date libraries regarding different careers, subjects, know-how, webinars, MOOC events, online Careers Fairs etc.

· Recording: students can an online record of achievement to evidence skills for future applications and CVs through the locker, interactions, skills, academics and activities functions.

· Searching for opportunities: a wide range of up to date libraries for students to search including: apprenticeships, UK universities, US universities, College/Sixth Forms, European universities etc.

· Application materials: this is the area that students can start to build their CVs, subject references for UCAS, Personal Statements etc.

· Making applications: students can keep a record of applications that they have put together and their post 18 intentions with plans to help support their careers choice.

We strongly encourage all pupils to regularly log on to Unifrog to record any careers encounter they have. Examples of careers encounters could be meeting/visiting an employer on a trip, in school, through work experience or something they have organised themselves outside of school. Unifrog can be accessed on any device including mobile phones and tablets, just visit the website Sign In - Unifrog and login using the details given out in school.

In the sections below you will see a snapshot of the careers activities we run in school; we will be encouraging pupils to record these experiences on Unifrog as well. Over time this will build up a profile of all the careers work they have done at St Peter’s and will help them when it comes to making major careers and study decisions.

Life Ready

St Peter’s has collaborated in the design of the Life Ready Programme (Solihull) which provides a framework designed to develop independent, life ready young adults. The programme is based on evidence from the Gatsby Foundation and the Confederation of British Industry.

The shared vision of the Life Ready Solihull Programme is that ‘pupils leaving St Peter’s will have the skills, knowledge and dynamism to reach their full career potential, to meet the needs of employers and to contribute to the economic growth of the borough’. The Life Ready model helps us give our pupils access to all the CEIAG you will find on this page. See the Life Ready website for more information www.solihullforsuccess.com/life-ready-home.

Careers Hub

A Careers Hub is a group of between 20 and 40 secondary schools and colleges in a dedicated area who work together to deliver the Gatsby Benchmarks. Collaborating with business partners, the public, education and voluntary sectors, they help deliver the Gatsby Benchmarks and improve careers outcomes for young people.

Members of the Solihull Hub, including St Peter’s, have a shared vision of how we'll work together to improve outcomes for the young people in our area.

IAGs

During their time at St Peter’s, all our pupils will receive information, advice and guidance around their Future Pathways at various Key Stages. The first IAG meetings start in Year 9 and take place annually through to Year 13:

· Year 9 – focussed around GCSE options

· Year 10 – focussed around Work Experience

· Year 11 – focussed around Post-16 options- external provider

· Year 12 – focussed around Work Experience and life after Year 13

· Year 13 – focussed around status of applications for jobs/apprenticeships/UCAS

All of the IAGs are personal, one-to-one meetings conducted by Form Tutors, Lead Tutors, Pastoral Assistants, Senior Leadership and the Careers Team. IAG data and information is carefully monitored from year to year to ensure that every pupil is given the necessary guidance towards their chosen pathway.

Our pupils also have one-to-one meetings with a Level 6, professional, unbiased careers advisor. They will have at least one meeting at KS4 with another opportunity in KS5 if appropriate.

Work Experience

Pupils from St Peter’s are given two opportunities to go out on Work Experience placements: once in Year 10 and again in Year 12. All pupils in Year 10 and 12 are encouraged to take up a placement during term time and are given information, advice and guidance towards which placement would be best for them. Year 12 pupils are also allowed to undertake work experience on one or two days/half-days throughout the year, giving them the opportunity to build up a wealth of experience and learn more about the world of work.

Virtual Encounters

There are now many opportunities to connect with students virtually, throughout the year there will be many occasions to connect with external employers through live careers streams, online assemblies, webinars for companies and in school masterclasses. These will happen through assemblies, form time and in lessons.

Pathway CTM

St Peter’s is in partnership with Pathway CTM, a social enterprise with a mission to improve the employability, career prospects and lives of school leavers. Pathway has worked with our sixth form pupils to give them access to employer taster days, insight days, careers fairs and assessment days. In addition to this, Pathway has provided employability skills development and labour market insights for pupils, parents and staff. This partnership will continue in September for current Year 12 and 13 pupils. Check out their website for more information http://www.pathwayctm.com

Monitoring and Evaluation

Throughout the year the Pupils will be asked to record their Careers Encounters on Unifrog. Unifrog allows us to run a report to keep track of all pupils’ progress with their Careers Education alongside Compass+. We can see the jobs they have liked, the skills and personal qualities they have developed, the potential destinations they have liked and the impact that the careers programme has had on their future pathway. On Unifrog pupils can record each Careers Encounter individually and make specific notes about this so that they can refer to it later. They can also link any relevant skills that they may have learned during the Careers Encounter and this will help build up their profile. All this data will allow us to tailor the careers programme towards certain pupils, giving them the best possible opportunities towards their future pathway.

We also use online surveys to ask for feedback following our Careers Events. We ask for feedback from pupils, parents and employers who come in to volunteer with us at St Peters. Again, we use this feedback to tailor the careers programme to pupils and this helps us improve the programme each year. This feedback is vital to help us continue to improve the Careers Education at St Peter’s so any support with this is always greatly appreciated.

If you would like to provide feedback as a pupil, parent or visitor/employer, please use the relevant links below: Pupils: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/careersstudents Parents: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/careersparents Visitors/Employers: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/careeremployees

The school also completes self-assessments of its Careers Programme once per half term through the Careers and Enterprise Company’s Compass Tool and Tracker system. This gives us a chance to reflect on the work we have done and again make improvements where necessary. The Compass+ Tool helps us to measure our progress against the Eight Gatsby Benchmarks – the government’s adopted guidelines for good careers guidance. For more information about the Gatsby Benchmarks, please refer to the Careers and Enterprise Company’s website www.careersandenterprise.co.uk and navigate to the Gatsby Benchmarks section.

The programme for CEIAG at St Peter’s will be reviewed in September 2025.