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West Kirby
School & College

Teachers

Embedding careers within the curriculum and why is it important?

FACT:

The statistics for adults with a learning disability and autism, known as adult social care, have remained consistently low across the country and the latest figures published in December 2023 show that the figure remains at 4.8%.  A harsh reality for all our amazing West Kirby School and College pupils.  

Every member of our staff team is crucial to the personal development of our pupils and supporting them with the tools to succeed and to navigate their career journey. 

What is the point of embedding career education within the curriculum and what will our pupils gain from this?

Thinking back to when I was in school over 40 years ago (no comments please!), I received very little career advice and what I did was useless!  Thankfully, education, support, advice and guidance has come a long way since then. With the government changes to vocational and technical education, with the introduction of the Careers Strategy in 2017, click here, and a new White Paper in 2021, click here.  There is now more importance being placed on linking curriculum learning to careers.

It’s also one of the eight Gatsby Benchmarks (see below) which all schools and colleges are working towards to deliver high quality career education, and to make study subjects relevant to working life.

But what does this mean to you, the educator?

In a nutshell, it means blending careers into their learning and employability skills development at the heart of learning, giving our pupils the opportunity to interact with employers through encounters with employers, employees and work experience.

Our pupils need to have the opportunity to put what they are learning in the classroom into a practical context. It’s about ensuring that pupils understand the skills and needs of employers, so that they become more employable in the future.  Highlight the careers that your subject will help them understand the opportunities available to them in further and higher education, so they can make informed decisions about their career.

It is important to understand how the job market will evolve in the future, click here to see the useful websites section and look at the areas of growth in the Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales regions.

As industries evolve and develop, it is essential that our pupils are equipped with the tools they need to navigate the labour market, so they can be successful in their chosen career path. As educators, we are helping our pupils to develop the employability skills and qualities needed for careers that are adapting to the fourth industrial revolution, as well as preparing them for jobs that don’t currently exist. For example, jobs that include the world of artificial intelligence or robotics, using AR/VR technologies in a variety of industries, from healthcare to retail. As technology advances and tasks become more automated, employers will be looking for people that have both IT and non-IT related skills, such as emotional and social intelligence, creativity, collaboration, and complex problem-solving tasks that machine automation wouldn’t be able to handle.

How can I do this?

Schools need to ensure that employers play a part in the education of their students, which could be through employer live briefs, work-based learning, incorporating work experience placements, employer talks and demonstrations.

Bringing professions, such as self-employed authors, hospitality sector employer talks, sports professionals, etc provide our pupils the opportunity to practise what they are learning in a realistic work environment. For example, when setting up The School Bakery, the department provided the pupils with opportunities to work with restaurants and other bakeries to make sourdough, barista training etc. This practical experience not only makes learning more interactive and relevant but gives the pupils practical examples they can take away to use in future interviews, as well as having the opportunity to start building a network of contacts.

If you are finding it difficult to gain employer interaction, curriculum departments could look at simulated scenarios, try to simulate real working life, ensure that the task has as many features as you would find in a real workplace as possible, such as deadlines, constraints on time and resources, and roles that need to be filled.  Our Enterprise Programme is a great opportunity for mathematics, English and IT departments to add to their curriculum.

Finding ways to show how what they are learning in their core curriculum relates to the world of work, will help our pupils to develop those skills and it is another practical experience students can draw on to demonstrate the skills and experience they have in future interviews.

What are the benefits for pupils?

By embedding careers within the curriculum, we can help students to understand the range of vocational opportunities that are linked to that learning, and how they can pursue those opportunities. It helps with motivation as students understand how what they are learning links into vocational careers, which in turn helps raise attainment and positive outcomes.

Helping our pupils to understand their realistic career options and how to make the best of opportunities, plus being able to develop relevant skills, qualities and attitudes, will help them to become more proficient at navigating the changing workforce.  Our pupils face barriers to employment just because of their having special educational needs. 

It’s rare that workers will spend their entire career in the same profession; often workers will change roles and employers throughout their working life. This means they need to be able to understand their skills and experience and how this can translate across to different industries and roles.

To find out more, contact the Careers team to see how we can help you to incorporate careers into your curriculum so that our pupils can make informed decisions about their next steps. Contact Helen Shallcross, Career Pathways Officer hshallcross@wkrs.co.uk

 

West Kirby School and College, Meols Drive, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 5DH

0151 632 3201

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