7th – 12th March 2022
It is National Careers Week! This is like National Coffee Week for Careers Advisers (that’s 17-23rd of October if you’re wondering). National Careers Week is a celebration of Careers Guidance and resources across the UK. The aim is to provide a focus in the calendar to help young people who are progressing of leaving education.
So what is Careers Education anyway and why do I love it so much?
Careers education is about empowering young people with information, advice and guidance about their future choices. Careers Education isn’t just about telling young people about what the labour market looks like now (not much use if they won’t be working in it until 2025). It is about teaching them how to develop their core skills, how to prepare themselves for the future workforce, how to make them feel positive about themselves and realising that everyone has something amazing about themselves.
Careers Education is about showing every single student from those who are not engaging and achieving through to those who get straight 9’s that they have a purpose, a worth and that they really have got something going for them. It is so much more than asking ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ (I am not even sure most adults know that!)
But why have I spent the last 20 years working in Careers Education and why do I love it so much? Because it is amazing watching young people find their spark. Finding out that life isn’t just about getting a handful of GCSE grades and that there is so much out there. Seeing their faces light up when they realise, they might be no good at writing an essay in English but they can build a brick wall or put together a complicated circuit is just amazing. Anyway, I digress, it is National Careers Week!! I have listed below some of the highlights over the week that you can dip in and out of. Email them to staff, show them to SLT or pop them on your website for students to access. All the resources are free and some are around for longer than a week
NCW2022 Resources
You will find lots of information on the following websites to support careers education in your provision next week.
Unifrog are offering a free virtual careers fair between 5pm and 8pm on Tuesday 8th March. https://www.unifrog.org/
On Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th The World Skills are running a spotlight on green jobs. Well worth signing up for as this is a growth industry. https://www.worldskillsuk.org/careers-advice/
You can find all the action for the week at NCW202 https://ncw2020.co.uk/
All the booklets and guides are here https://ncw2020.co.uk/booklets-guides/
The pintables for students can be found here https://ncw2020.co.uk/planning-publicity-printables/
You will find activities listed here https://ncw2020.co.uk/activities/ with everything from careers in racing to logistics and the Army through to the NHS. There is everything from videos to word games and helpful worksheets through to virtual events.
No matter how you celebrate National Careers Week enjoy it! Remember though that Careers Education isn’t only one week of the year. If you need help embedding careers in to your curriculum, support with the Gatsby Benchmarks or you need a level 6 qualified careers adviser to support your current careers programme we are here.
Don’t forget to tag us on our social media with your National Careers Week Activities!