A guide to providing careers support to schools
In their Contemporary transitions report The Educators and Employers Taskforce identified that where young people experience higher volumes of employer engagement it reduces their chances of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) by up to 86%. A printable version of this guide to providing careers support to schools is available at the end of this article.
In a changing world it is more important than ever that young people are given the opportunity to experience the world of work and hear about the opportunities that exist for them from employers.
Schools and colleges have a duty to secure careers information for young people and where young people are on post 16 courses there is typically an element of work experience required to fulfil the programme. The government invested over £70 million in the creation of The Careers & Enterprise Company an organisation dedicated to creating closer links between schools and businesses and for creating mentoring opportunities for young people.
There are good examples across the UK of organisations supporting their local schools with some national employers creating free education programmes. Employers recognise that by supporting young people in education you reap the benefits of: raising aspirations, developing early work skills and they are able to raise the employer brand.
We encourage all of our Community Members to support young people in their local community. This can be through school and college links, youth clubs or charities working with young unemployed people. From as little as an hour of time a year to a full programme of support there are lots of things an organisation can do to support young people and all of it counts.
Opportunities for you to get involved:
Volunteering/Speaking/Mentoring
You can contact your local schools direct and ask to speak with the careers coordinator to see if they have any opportunities coming up that require your support.
Careers and Enterprise Company
Become a Governor
Many schools look to recruit someone from a local business to support their governance. You can find more information here.
Speak to us
You can talk to the team at Youth Employment UK and we will be able to put you in touch with youth organisations and other charities working with young people who are no longer in education and need support.
Types of Activity
There are a range of school-led activities you could get involved with, the following list is not at all exhaustive but may give you some ideas:
- A talk about your career/organisation
- Careers Fair
- Speed networking
- CV Workshops
- Mock Interviews
- Enterprise Challenges
- Supporting curriculum
- Work experience
- Site visits
- Taster days
Top Tips
- Understand what you want to get out of the time you give to a school or students.
- Understand what the school needs and expects (see our additional guide to working with schools)
- Consider what the students might need, what will be of interest to them and how to make what you say relevant to their situation
- Wherever possible test your talk, materials and presentation with a young colleague and better still invite young colleagues along to give their perspective. Peer-to-peer can have a really positive impact
- Be mindful that not all young people will know about the different ways the world works, different careers and different routes, be informed as you can be about the exciting choices young people have and try to be impartial – you can get some further guidance about Apprenticeships and careers here
- Try and finish your presentation with three top tips or actions to give the students something practical to work on
Next Steps:
- A printable version of this article is available to download here:Â Creating Opportunity – Providing careers support to schools
- Our Employers guide to working with schools is available here:
https://www.youthemployment.org.uk/org-article/creating-opportunity-guide-employers-working-schools/