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Careers

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Confucius

Career describes our journey through life, learning and work. We need to actively develop our careers to make the best of them. The process of career development takes skills as well as knowledge and the right attitude. We need to work on these career development skills throughout our lives. As staff, we must ensure that learners understand that whether they are in education, in work, unemployed or involved in caring or voluntary activity there will always be opportunities to work on their career development skills.

Intent

At Magdalen Court School we aim to provide a safe, positive learning environment where our learners feel they belong, can believe in themselves, developing confidence and resilience as learners. We support them to achieve the desired outcomes to be successful in their next steps on the path to the world of work and independence, well-prepared for life and adulthood, who are keen to make a difference to the world they live in.

Magdalen Court School supports and encourages learners to become employable and aspirational people who are successful, confident and ambitious, with an understanding of their own skills and strengths, through engaging parents / carers where applicable, and local employers, both in college and through external visits and events.

Learners have access to an impartial ambitious, careers programme throughout their time at Magdalen Court, with explicit content, delivered in logical progression. Learners receive unbiased careers advice and support from a range of different career activities such as individualised 1:1 career meetings, small group sessions, PSHE, employer encounters, career fairs, career conversations, HE/FE visits, Apprenticeship workshops, virtual and work experience. We challenge perceptions and focus on raising aspirations, so that subject and career choices challenge stereotypes, and learners know how to look beyond their immediate environment to new and exciting possibilities.

Implementation

The careers programme is an element of the curriculum within every school year at Magdalen Court School. Skillsbuilder is an important element of the careers curriculum and provides focused time to develop key employability skills.

We view the key skills as:

We value these and view them as important for the future of our learners to develop their skills and join the world of work in the form of paid work, supported volunteering or being an active member of the community.

Using Skillsbuilder Hub, Evolve, the Careers and Enterprise and Young Enterprise websites as well as ASDAN PSHE (from year 9) we ensure that learners have developed their employability skills as highlighted above. The curriculum is planned to ensure that learners develop their knowledge of the range of careers available, provide opportunities to develop their employability skills, experience virtual and real-life work experience. Our curriculum has been developed to meet the expectations of the Gatsby Benchmarks

The curriculum also provides the opportunity to prepare for the requirements of securing a job as well as developing their knowledge of the methods in which they can achieve a role in their preferred career choice. These include CV writing and interview technique as well as attending the school’s careers fair, visiting colleges and fairs related to careers such as the National Apprenticeship show.

Our Key Stage 2 careers programme supports learners in their understanding and development of transferrable skills that can be used in different learning environments. This includes developing learners knowledge of:

  • Employability skills using the Skills Builder Toolkit.
  • The different job sectors, locally, nationally and internationally.
  • Citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
  • Job roles, including experiences and to link the skills required to complete them.

Our Key Stage 3 careers programme supports students in making choices of their GCSE subjects and entry level pathways. This includes:

  • Exploring career roles and links to their own personal interests.
  • Developing their knowledge of employability skills using the Skills Builder Toolkit and the 8 essential strands to succeed.
  • Supporting learners to research and prepare for upcoming careers events in their community, using their developing skills to communicate with a variety of providers.
  • Learners investigate varying job sectors, locally, nationally and internationally, whilst researching the skills needed for future job sectors.
  • Learners are given the opportunity to explore and link the importance of employees’ rights and mental wellbeing with job satisfaction.

 

Our Key Stage 4&5 careers programme aims to help learners research and develop their knowledge of possible choices and routes into education and training. This includes:

  • Researching, identifying and sourcing work experience placements, developing the skills needed to be successful in employment and review their skillset. 
  • Developing their knowledge of different career pathways, relating their skills and progression through education with employment opportunities.
  • Learners’ attendance at National Apprenticeship events and open days at colleges and universities to source personalised pathways. 
  • Develop learner’s skills by specifically looking at the different skills needed for work and the 8 essential strands to succeed.
  • Develop learners' knowledge of employer and employee rights, taxes, managing income/expenditure and sourcing advice in the workplace.

Our Careers curriculum is designed so learners can give feedback, and their progress measured as they move through the Key Stages. We measure and assess the impact of the programme’s initiatives by:

  • Utilising the Skills Builder 8 essential skills and measuring the steps of progress in each skill.
  • The Careers Lead meeting termly with teachers to discuss, evaluate and develop the curriculum, 
  • Inviting all stakeholders to the careers fair and seeking their feedback.
  • Publishing all the careers specific activities that students have been experiencing and the dates and relevant contacts of upcoming events.
  • Ensuring learners in years 10 and 11 attend careers interviews with a careers specialist from ‘Careers South West’ (CSW), to discuss their personalised pathway into the world of work.

Impact

Learner’s careers curriculum will support them to make informed decisions and progress to the next stage of their chosen path to independence and stage in their lives, be it in further education, apprenticeship or joining the world of work. We aim to provide our young people with the skills necessary in order to continue along their journey to achieve their goals.​

Our careers lead is David Phillips, and he can be contacted via or email: dphillips@magdalencourt.org.