All staff should provide inspirational opportunities to bring Careers education into the classroom and highlight the relevance of their subject to the world of work and career pathways. You should have an understanding of our Careers programme across the GFM and be able to articulate this: The aim of our Careers education programme is to broaden horizons and to develop the skills and attitudes to enable all students to make effective and informed decisions about their future education, training and employment pathways.
Every teacher is a teacher of Careers. However, it is absolutely vital that all staff remain impartial when discussing pathways and next steps with young people. If you would like to develop your confidence around the current pathways on offer, such as T Levels and apprenticeships, please contact the Careers team and seek further guidance and CPD. Routes into employment, vocational and technical training have advanced significantly in recent years, so it is important that any information shared with students is accurate, up to date and wholly unbiased by personal opinion. Our Careers staff are trained to provide impartial, independent advice and guidance to students and are on hand to support any conversations.
Our Trust Lead for Careers and Business Liaison is Nicki Craven who is based next to R11 at Bay House and can be reached at ncraven@gfmat.org; she will answer any questions you may have, share opportunities and highlight resources to help you build Careers into the curriculum. As a Trust we have built our Careers programme around the eight Gatsby Benchmarks, a framework of best practice for Careers education. As staff, you can directly impact Gatsby Benchmark 4, and we need your commitment to meet this across every subject area:
Gatsby 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 career paths.
We have a group of committed staff Career Champions who take the lead for each department, ensuring there is a display board linking the subject area to career pathways and sparking conversations, inviting in guest speakers, ensuring that Careers education features in the scheme of work and that subject-related trips include a Careers element with an employer or employee, such as learning about jobs in a particular field, the skills and qualifications needed or progression routes and potential salaries. Embedding Careers into the curriculum helps us to meet further Gatsby Benchmarks and your support is much appreciated. The Careers Champions also share termly reports with Nicki, highlighting all of the activity taking place across the department. If you would like to become a Careers Champion for your subject, please speak to your Head of Department or Nicki, who can also provide you with useful resources, industry contacts and keep you updated with the latest news.
The GFM Careers site contains a wealth of information on further and higher education, apprenticeships and employment options to help you answer queries from students and we also have a section dedicated to staff.
Our chosen Careers platform, Careerpilot, provides information and advice about all options for 14, 16 and 18 year olds, including apprenticeships, college and higher level study. The platform has tools to help students learn more about themselves as individuals, their options and to help plan their next steps.
Staff do not require a login or password; students should have a login attached to their school email address. Staff are encouraged to use CareerPilot to aid their discussions with students about their future direction.
Staff are also welcome to visit the Careers Rooms to browse our extensive range of literature; these rooms are staffed by qualified Careers Advisors on different days of the week during school hours.
- Brune Park: Next to TS13.
The Cross-MAT Careers Leadership office is located next to R11 at Bay House; if you would like to make a suggestion about the Careers programme, ask a question or give any feedback, please drop in or email us at careers@gfmat.org.
