By Gavin Mackintosh-
Nineteen secondary schools are poised to get support to bring in ex-pupils to offer careers advice after a charity won almost £120,000 in funding from the Careers and Enterprise Company.
Future First has been given a £119,940 grant to deliver its services in half of the areas identified by the government as social mobility “cold spots”.The charity is set to work with 19 secondary schools in Bradford, Doncaster, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich and Stoke-on-Trent. The overall aim is to foster an inspiring network of ex pupils that help motivate current pupils in education and future careers.
The Careers and Enterprise Company is charged with improving access to careers advice and guidance in schools. It employs regional enterprise coordinators, who oversee a network of volunteer enterprise advisers, who work directly with schools.
Each school will receive services worth £5,997, including an alumni programme officer who will bring in ex-pupils to offer workshops, work experience and world-at-work days to current pupils. The charity also plans to train staff on how to “successfully harness alumni experience” to advise pupils on their next steps. The move is part of the Uk government’s scheme to compel schools to improve the career prospects of their pupils. As from September of this year , British secondary schools must publish details of their careers programmes, as well as have a named “careers leader”. Having a good education is expected to lead to good career opportunities for hardworking and achieving pupils, making the scheme in place a very positive one. There are a number of former school pupils who have achieved in school but been utterly lost in terms of following a career path with long term prospects.
School leavers are advised to pursue A levels after their G.C.S.E’s, potentially leading them to a degree course. Whilst Universities are often saturated with offers from aspiring graduates, some pupils who have undergone the rigorous education provided by high standard state, grammar and private secondary schools, many pupils give up after their G.C.S.E’s or A levels. Encounters with employers helps give pupils an idea of what qualifications are required for certain careers, enabling them to adjust their future academic plans accordingly, or be aware of the career limitations available to them in the light of their present academic achievements or their prospective grades,
The Uk government now demands schools will also be obliged to offer every pupil at least seven “meaningful encounters” with employers and meet all eight of the government-endorsed “Gatsby benchmarks” of good careers education. It employs regional enterprise coordinators, remains under pressure to prove its grassroots impact following a grilling by the parliamentary education committee two months ago over a “giant and confusing” structure and lack of transparency.
“If pupils see that someone who sat at the same school desk, perhaps had the same teachers and is from the same background has gone on to succeed, they are more likely to believe they can too.”