Careers Library - Student & Parent/Carer

Job Exploration

Job/Career exploration is an important step in helping a student fulfil long term employment goals. This exploration can help a student connect to a path that is aspirational, appealing, fulfilling, and leads to a desired career.
 
Below are some useful websites students and their parent/carer can look at together to aid job exploration:

• BBC Bitesize Careers - for a variety of really good short careers insight and careers advice videos.
• Barclays LifeSkills - Helps you to identify skills, gain experience, be inspired and supercharge your CV.
• Careers Box - bank of careers videos
• Career Pilot - An online resource that helps you consider your options. This resource has a range of sections dedicated to job sectors, qualifications, identifying and recording skills and an online test.
• Get Into Theatre - hundreds of ways to enter careers working in the theatre. Ideas on where and how to start and step by step guides to support you.
• icould - videos to get an insight into careers and work, and draw links between subjects and jobs.
• Job Today - for a variety of video career guides and job profiles.
• National Careers Service - has over 700 careers profiles providing information on the skills and qualifications required. 
• Parental Guidance - is a website written by The Careers Writers Association that gives some useful advice to parents regarding their son/daughter’s future plans and has some excellent links to other, additional resources.
• Prospects - gives detailed job information and links to advice on writing CVs and cover letters. 
• Screen Skills - explore careers in film, TV, games, animation or VFX, and browse job profiles. Interesting 360 experience of a first day on a film set.
• Start - is a free online careers platform to connect 11–18-year-old with their future career potential. 
• Tasty Careers - National Skills Academy for Food and Drink. It has a great Interactive Careers Map where you can discover the huge range of rewarding career opportunities in the food and drink industry. 
  
• Talking Futures - Talking Futures is full of resources and advice on how to have informed and constructive career conversations with your child about their academic and professional future.
• Worldskills - This guide aims to ensure parents have information about some of the key elements of progression and careers including; options and qualifications, apprenticeships and traineeships as a route to success, the importance of skills and qualifications and how jobs are changing.

Skillsometer

The Skillsometer is a useful tool that can help you discover what jobs you might like to do in the future. You will be presented with a series of statements. Select the emoji that shows how you feel about each statement. At the end you will be given suggestions of jobs linked to what you most enjoy doing.

Colleges and Alternative Providers

There are a number of local colleges and alternative providers that offer courses from Entry Level all the way to Level 3 and A levels. We as a school partner with quite a few of these providers as part of our Sixth form offer.
 
To find out more about these provisions click on the links below:

Supported Internships

A Supported Internship is a study programme aimed at young people aged 16 to 25 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and want to move into employment but need some extra support. An internship usually lasts one year.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship program trains a worker to become skilled in a particular trade. Apprenticeships combine hands-on work with classroom learning to train the apprentice. Apprenticeships are considered full-time employment. As the apprentice is learning, they are also applying the lessons through working.

A student with SEND is capable of progressing on to an Apprenticeship but in order to be considered they will need the required qualifications for the level of Apprenticeship they are applying for. It is important to remember Apprenticeships are very competitive and it can be difficult to be accepted on to one.

There are some SEND specific Apprenticeships but the majority of paid Apprenticeships are for young people working at Level 2 and above.

Below are some websites with more information about Apprenticeships and Apprenticeship opportunities:

• Apprenticeships - Everything you need to know about becoming an apprentice and access to live apprenticeships
• Find an apprenticeship
• Government Apprenticeship Information
• Amazing Apprenticeships

Other Useful Careers Websites & resources