Here at The Pioneer Special School we offer careers education, information, advice and guidance to ensure that students leave with the right tools and values to help them to prepare for adulthood. 

We support students to start to think about their future options when they leave Pioneer and how their skills and experiences fit with life after Pioneer. We prepare students for their preferred transitional pathway whether that be college courses, employment, training or independent living.

Giving all our students the opportunity to gain meaningful and relevant experience of work enables them to experience the world of the working environment outside the school setting. The work experience activities are normally greatly enjoyed by everyone who takes part and allows students to develop key skills such as communication, teamwork and social interaction.

Where students are able to access work experience opportunities we try, where appropriate, to provide these in either very small groups or individually. We currently have opportunities at local shops, Essex Wildlife Trust, ACL, Basildon Volunteer Service and Local Church Cafes. We have experience of work opportunities on site where the pupils work with the onsite cleaning team, build outside garden projects, Enterprise café and through art and craft sessions where students sell items they have made in the pop up shop. Other students are given experiences of work through community visits and Pioneer based tasks or placements.  

At a glance 

• Careers lead - Roxanne Francis

• Careers road map and curriculum throughout the school - Sequenced and relevant for each phase

• Careers week - 12-16th June 2023

Talks from employers - Mcdonalds, Tui etc

First Aid qualification

Work based activities

Little city (lower school)

Demonstrations from local businesses - Chiropodist, Beauty salon 

• Work experience 

Internal - Enterprise cafe Tuesday and Friday, We work Wednesdays, Kitchen staff, IT support, Caretaker, Basildon Volunteer service

External - 6 week programme with EWT - Fence painting, orchid counting, litter picking, fixing fences etc, 1 day a week placement for specific pupil at Church cafe, Basildon Volunteer service. 

Gill close DWP - Targeted careers sessions on,  World of work, CV writing and Interview techniques

• Make your money grow

• Gatsby benchmark 

We ensure that the 8 benchmarks are embedded into our curriculum and that students across the school have access to activities that support them. We complete the Gatsby compass tool each year to assess where we are as a school and to ensure we keep improving our careers provision year on year. 

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Seevic College

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