CAREERS
At Stephenson Studio School we place quality, timely Careers Advice and Guidance (IAG) at the heart of our offer to students. This compliments the work placements our students go on in Year 10 & 11. Every year we have students who are offered apprenticeships by the employer they carried out their work placement with.
Following 12 years working in the local careers service for young people, I have been the schools Careers Adviser since April 2017. My role is to help all students to plan short/ long term career goals, whether it be to explore going to college after Year 11, through to other options such as apprenticeships. Meeting 1-1 with the students (of whom I know well, as I am also a Learning Support Assistant in the school) allows the students to explore potential career routes, discuss any fears or concerns they have about the next major step in their education journey, and for me to explain to them the options available for when they leave school. I also offer appropriate support to our students with additional needs, by identifying suitable options to them, and breaking down information in a way that they can understand and make use of.
I produce an "Action Plan" for each student, which is a summary of our meeting, with a "what to do next" section. This is then reviewed at their next IAG meeting. I post the action plans home to parents/carers, so they are aware that their son/daughter had a careers meeting, and also so they are as well informed as the student I’ve seen, in terms of options available after Year 11.
Stephenson Studio School is in the unique position of being based within a college, as Stephenson College run careers events throughout the year. In February each year our students have the opportunity to attend both an apprenticeship provider event, and a general careers event. Major apprenticeship providers such as Volvo and North West Leicestershire District Council attended, in addition to the Police, the Army, and Coventry University at the general careers event.
For both the IAG and careers events our students engage in, we try to gain their feedback. With the feedback we receive from students, I use this to improve IAG support, if needed. By gaining a flavour of, for example, the types of employers the students would like to see at careers events such as the one mentioned above, I can then feed this back to the college, so they can try to bring in more employers of interest to our students at future events.
All students can self-refer for a meeting. I keep self-referral slips on my desk in the upper cluster, should they wish to ask for a careers meeting. Our teachers are fully aware of the IAG service in school, and can also refer students to me whom they feel would benefit from some careers support.
I hope that gives you an overview of the IAG service offered at Stephenson Studio School. Any questions, or if you’d like to request an IAG meeting for your son/daughter, please email – info@stephensonstudioschool.co.uk.
The Schools Careers Leader is the Head Teacher, Keith Hobbs. Any questions about the school’s careers programme, or the IAG provided, please call 01530 519099. If you are an employer and would like to know how we prepare our students for the world of work (or can offer our students a work placement), please call Geoff Dixon, our Business, Enterprise, and Employability lead, on the same number.
