Advice for Parents / Carers

The following websites are full of really useful information about introducing your child into the World of Work and how to start those conversations.

https://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/parents/topics

https://www.careersadviceforparents.org/

The following link takes you to both local authority Local Offers.  Information about what the Local Offer is/should be is detailed below. 

CWaC Local Offer, Further Education (Post-16)

Cheshire East Local Offer, Education

What is The Local Offer?

The Local Offer is a Local Authority’s publication of all the provision “they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled, including those who do not have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.” (Section 4.1 SEND Code of Practice, January 2015)

The Local Offer has two key purposes:

1. To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up to date information about the available provision and how to access it &
2. To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review.

Section 30 of the Children and Families Act 2014, which came into force on 1 September 2014, defines and prescribes the content of a Local Offer.

Local Authorities in England must publish information about:

1. The education, health and care provision & other training provision it expects to be available in its area at the time of publication for children and young people who have special educational needs or a disability
2. The provision it expects to be available outside its area at that time for
   1. Children and young people for whom it is responsible &
   2. Children and young people in its area who have a disability
3. Arrangements for travel to and from schools and post-16 institutions and places at which relevant early years education is provided;
4. Provision to assist in preparing children and young people for adulthood and independent living relating to 
   1. Finding employment
   2. Obtaining accommodation
   3. Participation in society

The local offer should also set out how to access specialist services, how to complain or appeal and plans for transition to adulthood.

Glossary of terms

Apprenticeships - An apprenticeship is a training and employment framework in which an individual gains the experience and learns the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to become established in a profession, trade or other area of work. Apprenticeships are at different levels of difficulty: intermediate (level 2), advanced (level 3) and higher (level 4)

Career - The basic definition of a career is the sequence of positions and roles held by a person in the course of their working life. This definition refers to the information that is typically recorded on a person’s CV. A wider and more holistic definition would include how a person feels about the experiences they have had on the way and its impact on their life as a whole

Careers education - Refers to taught activities and interventions in the planned curriculum that lead to learning. The ACEG Framework of careers and work-related education outcomes (CDI, 2013) is widely used by schools to structure their provision. It is very difficult to teach careers education well as a subject. The term ‘career-related learning’ is sometimes used to describe a looser provision in which other learning may be dominant, e.g. careerrelated learning in English. ‘Career learning’ is a useful term that describes the learning of the career by a student taking a vocational subject such as hairdressing or engineering.

Careers guidance - This term has a multiplicity of meanings so it is important to clarify the context in which it is being used. It can mean 6 umbrella term for all the activities that make up a school’s careers provision, e.g. careers information, careers education, work-related experiences, planning and recording progress, coaching, mentoring, counselling, guidance. It can also be used to refer to the range of helping and support activities for young people. There is more to careers guidance than one-to-one interviews or conversations. Small-group work and interventions mediated by digital technology and social media tools are part of emerging practice. Where the term ‘advice and guidance’ is used, ‘advice’ refers to the straightforward help given to a student and ‘guidance’ refers to the more complex and in-depth help that some young people need.

Career skills - Young people need career skills to manage their own careers and to contribute to the well-being of themselves, their families, the communities and the wider society of which they are a part and the environment and the economy. The school’s careers provision, therefore, needs to help individuals to develop their self-efficacy, raise their aspirations, carry out career exploration, become more adaptable and resilient, make decisions and transitions, be more enterprising and be able to present themselves well in applications and interviews.

CEIAG - The shorthand used in education can be baffling to outsiders! CEIAG stands for careers education, information, advice and guidance.

Coaching - Coaching is a way of helping students to get the best out of themselves. Coaches strengthen the motivation of individuals to succeed and train them in the skills they need to achieve their goals.

Employability - A young person is employable if they have the skills and resources to get and maintain themselves in work. Many different employability skills frameworks have been developed. The key point from a careers perspective is that employability is not just about possessing the skills that employers need. It is about having the skills that employers are looking for and which enable the individual to fulfil their aspirations in working life.

Enterprise - Showing initiative and being entrepreneurial are key qualities and skills that enable individuals to contribute to the health of the economy but which also help them design and manage their own working lives

Equality Duty - The Equality Act (2010) offers protection to individuals and groups that might otherwise experience stereotyping, discrimination or prejudice in any area of their lives including their careers and work. The ‘protected characteristics’ that apply to young people are sex, race, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy or 7 maternity. Schools are required to publish equality information at least annually and to set their equality objectives at least every four years. It is vitally important that the performance of the careers guidance duty is underpinned by the equality duty.

IAG - IAG refers to information, advice and guidance (see ‘careers guidance’ above)

Impartial - Impartial does not mean being neutral. It refers to putting the interests of the young person before any other consideration. Ofsted and the main associations of FE colleges have regularly reported on how this principle has been infringed by a minority of schools that seek to protect their sixth forms. Impartiality is also compromised when school staff are ignorant of the full range of opportunities available to their students at key decision and transition points. What matters most to students is the credibility of careers staff, e.g. Do they know what they’re talking about? Can they make things happen? Independent In this context, independent means external to the school.

Mentoring - Mentoring is a planned programme in which a more experienced individual helps one or more less experienced individuals to develop and make progress in their learning and work.

PSHEe - Personal, Social, Health and Economic education. Schools often have their own variant of this formulation. It refers to programmes of study that are designed to promote personal and social well-being and ‘learning for life’. Aspects of careers education may be delivered through PSHEe either in an integrated way or as separate modules.

SMT - Senior Management Team. It is important that a member of the SMT has overall responsibility for careers work in the school and can, therefore, ensure that the schools is providing appropriate levels of support for all students but in particular for students with protected characteristics, looked after children, young carers, students with special educational needs and students for whom the school receives the Pupil Premium.  Mrs Daniele Langford is the SMT member who is the Careers Lead in Greenbank School.

STEM - A shorthand for ‘science, technology, engineering and maths’. STEM-related industries are vital to the success of the economy and are the focus of a drive to overcome the problem of labour shortages.

Work-related learning  - Work-related learning is learning about, for and through work. Learning about work promotes economic and industrial understanding. Learning for work promotes careers awareness and employability. Learning through work promotes the use of the world of work as a resource and a relevant context for learning in all subjects.