Careers Education, Information Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) at Aylsham High School

Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) can be defined as:

“Services and activities, intended to assist individuals… to make education, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers. The activities may take place on an individual or group basis and may be face-to-face or at a distance, including web-based services. They include careers information provision, assessment and self-assessment tools, counselling interviews, careers education programmes, taster programmes, work search programmes and transition services.”.  

DfE Statutory Guidance, March 2013

Aylsham High School recognises the essential role of CEIAG in preparing students for their future education, training and employment. CEIAG is fundamental in helping a young person to reach their full potential and secure a bright future.  It is the intent of the school to provide an effective and inspiring careers programme for all students, to enable them to make excellent informed and positive decisions about their future and to equip them with the knowledge, skills, experience and confidence they will need to enter the workplace and to manage their own lifelong learning and career development.

The Gatsby Benchmarks

Central to the Government’s Careers Strategy are the ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’.  In 2013, The Gatsby Foundation commissioned Sir John Holman to investigate what good career guidance in England should look like.  This resulted in the creation of 8 benchmarks for schools to work towards, in order to plan and deliver an effective Careers Programme.  These benchmarks have been widely adopted as an indication of quality careers guidance and schools have a statutory duty to meet them.

The Eight Gatsby Benchmarks are:

1. A stable Careers Programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experience of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal careers guidance from a qualified adviser

Aims of the Careers Programme

Through our Careers and Enterprise Programme, Aylsham High School aims to reflect and endorse the school ethos, which demonstrates and encourages the following values:

• Respect for self
• Respect for others
• Responsibility for their own actions
• Responsibility for their family, friends, school and wider community
• Respect for the environment

Additionally, it aims to:

• Make a major contribution in preparing young people for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adulthood. 
• Ensure that all students (and their parents/carers) receive appropriate and timely information, advice and guidance, particularly at key decision and transition points.
• Minimise the risk of any student becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
• Strive to support inclusion, challenge stereotyping, promote equality of opportunities and to support students in overcoming any overt or hidden barriers to progress.
• Raise aspirations by ensuring that all students have the opportunity to create a plan for their future education and career, that is not limited, and which encourages all students to develop employability skills and to strive to achieve the best qualifications they can, in order to achieve their goals.

Learners’ Entitlement

Through our Careers and Enterprise Programme, our aim is for learners to be able to:

• Recognise that ‘career’ is more than a ‘job’ – it is a journey through life which includes learning, work and career breaks and that all career decisions involve lifestyle and learning choices.
• Improve the self-knowledge and skills that they need to take charge of their personal and career development.  Including considering their strengths and talents, interests and preferences, and how this affects the choices they make.
• Develop and practise career exploration and research skills, in order to gain an understanding of the full range of options available to them for their future education, employment or training, including qualifications required for different occupations. 
• Have a clear plan for transition, after Year 11, which includes considering different pathways, such as: A’ levels at sixth form, vocational courses at college, scholarship opportunities and apprenticeships.
• Make effective and timely applications for work experience, jobs, training or further education and be given the opportunity to practise interview skills.
• Learn about the world of work through encounters with employers, employees and workplaces, both in school and through work experience or workplace visits.
• Understand how the Labour Market is changing, both locally and nationally, so that they can make decisions which will allow them to take advantage of actual and emerging employment opportunities.
• Develop their career management, decision-making, employability and enterprise skills and encourage a mind-set of lifelong learning, in order to achieve future career progression or change.
• Improve their engagement at school, by providing increased focus and motivation and by illustrating the relevance of curriculum studies to future life.
• Raise their aspirations to continue their learning, through Further and Higher Education, and to achieve goals, no matter how far-reaching, but to do so in a realistic manner.
• Engage with, and contribute to, the activities of our local community of businesses and other organisations, including building an awareness of opportunities for volunteering.

Students will receive:

• Careers lessons, activities or opportunities.
• Guided activities in tutor time.
• Access to the career information resources via a range of media.
• Guidance interviews – from a qualified Careers Adviser.
• A range of experiences of work and opportunities to meet employer inside and outside of the classroom.
• Other subject lessons linked to Careers, Employability and Enterprise.

Students can expect to be:

• Treated equally with others.
• Given careers information and advice that is up to date and impartial.
• Treated with respect by visitors to the school who are part of the Careers and Enterprise programme.
• Given extra help if they have additional / special needs.

Key Careers Contacts:

For any queries relating to our careers programme, please contact:

Miss Lauren Wiseman - [email protected]

Miss Emmalucy Wright
Careers Lead and Head of Business and Enterprise
Miss Wright is the Careers Leader, as well as the Head of Business and Enterprise and a full-time teacher.
[email protected]

Telephone 01263 733270