Petroc's Careers Programme

Introduction

This part of the training will take you through the key aspects of Petroc's Careers Programme that relates to FE Academic staff.

The careers programme is a requirement of the Gatsby Benchmarks (GB#1), includes a wide variety of careers activity and ensures that Petroc meets all eight Gatsby Benchmarks (you will learn more about the Gatsby Benchmarks later in the training).

FE Academic staff contribute to a number of the Gatsby benchmarks through their own teaching, the tutorial programme or organising additional careers activities.

Gatsby Benchmark 8 "Personal Guidance" is delivered by level 6 trained careers professionals who work in Petroc's Careers service. FE Academic staff should refer students who need 1:1 careers guidance to Petroc's Careers Service (described later in the training), rather than provide careers guidance themselves.

Next you will read about the Gatsby Benchmarks in more detail, and find out the sort of career activities you can be delivering.

How to use this page

1) Read through the descriptions of each Gatsby benchmark and suggestions for career activities that should be included when teaching groups of students, either through your own teaching or the tutorial programme.

2) As you read choose activities that you can include in your scheme of work.

3) Some careers activities will already have been organised and you can find these in the Careers Calendar (see the link at the bottom of the page).

4) Other careers activities you may need to arrange yourself, and there is a list of careers resources to help you, these include careers schemes of work, career lessons, career websites, lists of local employers willing to work with Petroc, and much more. You will explore this in a bit more detail later in the training (see the link at the bottom of the page).

GB 2 - Learning from Careers and Labour Market Information/Intelligence (LMI)

"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 best use of available information".

In practise this means that students should learn about:

the type of jobs location in the area they want to work
the number of vacancies for the job they are interested in the location they want to work
the type and size of businesses in the area they want to work
information about the job that interests them such as salary, qualifications, duties, environment, who they will work with etc

GB 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".

In practise this means:

differentiating careers lessons for each pupil
challenging career-related stereotypes
recording careers activity using the Petroc systems such as CIS
enabling students to access their careers-activity records

GB 4 - Linking Curriculum to Careers

"All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers. For example, STEM subject teachers should highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths".

In practise this means:

teaching lessons that provide a clear link between the subject being taught and the associated range of career pathways.
providing time for the students to assess the career pathways and identify those that appeal to them.
allowing students to review and analyse key information in their selected career choices such as duties, qualifications, salary, job location, work environment, etc.
providing time for students to reflect on what they find so they are able to assess which jobs best suit them, and for them to use the information to plan their career.

GB 5 - Encounters with Employers and Employees

Petroc's careers service is delivered by level 6 trained impartial careers coaches, and links directly to Gatsby Benchmark 8. The service is just one part of Petroc's overall Careers Programme and is accessible at all three campuses:

"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."

In practise this means:

learners learning from employers/employees about their business and industry including their own career journey, career pathways, jobs, the future of jobs, and industry changes.
organising for employers/employees to deliver presentations to your students as part of a lesson.
allowing for students to visit careers events on campus.
organising for your students to visit employer premises.

GB 6 - Experiences of Workplaces

"Every pupil should have first-hand experiences* of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks."

In practise this means:

each learner should have undertaken work experience at least once by the time they are eighteen.
this does not include part-time work.
this can include virtual work experience as well as physical work experience.

GB 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. "

In practise this means, by the time the learner leaves their course they should:

know all the options available to them upon completion of their course.
have experienced talking to a range of apprenticeship training providers.
know what options are available to them at an FE college.
if relevant to them, have had at least two interactions with a range of degree providers (virtual or in-person).

CAREERS CALENDAR

Petroc organises a number of careers events through out the academic year which can be included in curriculum careers lessons, see the careers calendar for more information.

CAREERS RESOURCES

There is a wide range of "off the shelf" careers resources that can be embedded into curriculum career lessons.

NEXT - Gatsby Benchmark 8

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