Highshore’s Careers offer

Our Aims/Rationale

We aim for students to experience and participate in the world of work as fully as possible. We run both internal and external work experience programmes, as well as visits to workplaces and employability workshops from organisations. This gives our students the chance to focus on their independence, communication and self-help skills, better enabling them to seek employment upon leaving school.

Our Offer

• Appropriate work experience opportunities to develop understanding of the skills required in the workplace.
• Meaningful interactions with a range of external partners to broaden young people’s knowledge and aspirations.
• Opportunities across the curriculum to develop transferable life, work and social skills.
• Development of pupil voice in regards to decision-making and self-advocacy
• Information, advice and guidance for students and parents to support their career and transition pathway

Work Experience Placements can be either long- or short-term. Some students go to work experience one day a week (which could be a few hours) or for a full a week. We work with employers to run flexible programmes to suit both the organisation and student needs.

Our Partners

The school also works closely with Reed in Education, our enterprise advisors, as part of the London Careers Hub network. Through this, the school has been able to offer valuable workshops and experiences to help further our dedication to Gatsby Benchmarks 5 & 6 - encounters with employers and employees, & experiences of workplaces.

Our Strengths

• A stable Careers programme – All pupils access some form of careers education.
• Established community links and partners – We have established good links with a number of partners in the local community and across London
• Varied Work Experience opportunities for pupils – We offer a variety of WEX for pupils, both external and internal. Internal WEX includes working int the canteen, taking stationary orders and organising recycling.
• Enterprise – Enterprise overlaps with Careers and includes running a cafe, preparing hot drinks, taking orders, transacting payments. Additionally, enterprise products are made in school then sold at special event days, or in the community.
• College links – We have links with Lewisham College, who a large number of our leavers transition to. Sixth form students go weekly to Lewisham to take part in a number of taster courses. The experience helps them to familiarise themselves with the college environment, as well as accessing different vocational activities. We also have a link with Roots & Shoots, who offer a horticulture-based learning experience.
• Accreditation – Pupils are able to access a range of qualifications, including Entry Level Functional Skills English, Maths and ICT, ASDAN Employability, The Arts Award, RGT Guitar gradings and Sports Leaders.

Our Areas for Development

The school uses national Gatsby benchmarks to assess its effectiveness in delivering Careers Education.

1. Gatsby Benchmark 4 – Linking curriculum learning to careers

• Link curriculum learning with careers and transition.

Historically, careers education has been a part of our curriculum, however, we want it to play a more prominent role.

Our next steps:

To further strengthen curriculum links, site approval has been gained to deliver ASDAN’s Employability accreditation for older pupils, working at Entry Level 2 and 3.

To work proactively with the London Career’s Hub and Reed in Education to provide CPD for staff around how to effectively link curriculum learning with careers.

2. Gatsby Benchmark 8 – Careers guidance

• Southwark Council do not have a grade 5 Careers Advisor so 1:1 career guidance has not been possible’

Our next steps:

The school is actively seeking partners who can provide careers guidance to pupils and is in conversation with Scope and Reed.

The school will continue to provide Career’s guidance in the form of LMI (Labour Market Information) to both pupils and families, through events such as our Careers Fair and PFA evenings.

Our EBIs

• Developing stronger community links
• Hosting regular community events onsite
• Developing internship routes for 6^th form pupils

Developing a more structured WEX offer which evolves across year g