What is it?
National Careers Week happens every year and it is a week dedicated to celebrating Careers Guidance in the UK. There are lots of free careers resources and webinars happening in school time and in the evenings next week that students, teachers and careers professionals can use.
Why is it important?
National Careers Week is an important part of the academic calendar as it gives a focus to Careers Guidance! Careers and thinking about our futures in school is as important as core subjects. It isn’t just about ‘what you want to be when you grow up’. Careers is about so much more than that. Careers helps students to learn the invaluable skill of making decisions. Students also develop skills in research and analysis and that get to learn about skills and how they can be transferred from school to careers. Careers Guidance also helps students to develop skills in self reflection, something us adults often wish we were better at. Careers also shows students about hundreds and thousands of possibilities that are out there! For me there is nothing better than seeing a student light up when they hear about a career they never knew existed but fits perfectly with what they enjoy and love. National Careers Week focuses everyone’s attention on all of this.
Resources
There are so many resources online for NCW it is hard to find them all and collate them. So I have hand picked some of my favourite resources that you can use next week and the National Careers Week resources too.
- National Careers Week website: https://nationalcareersweek.com/
- Planning and publicity (all those posters!): https://ncw2020.co.uk/planning-publicity-printables/
- Offline activities: https://ncw2020.co.uk/activities/
- Parents guide: https://ncw2020.co.uk/booklets-guides/
- Virtual careers fair: https://ncw2023.co.uk/
- Jobs Live (lots of great talks all week!): https://jobsliveuk.com/
- Talking business podcast has some great podcasts ona range of careers: https://talkingbusinesspodcast.com/
- BBC Bitesize has some talks including the gorgeous Mr P: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zrt6s82
- See it Be it has some excellent resources for the week and all year round: www.seeitbeit.org.uk
- Springpod have on demand resources ideal to fit into the school day: https://on-demand.springpod.com/?fbclid=IwAR09ZecHctVc9UApk8-xHwcpLsEb_TVeX_-UfWIKVgXsXAjzE-Sryj6Bo4o
- STEM talk: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/national-careers-week-age-is-just-a-number-when-it-comes-to-studying-tickets-523597001727
- In to Film – Film industry!: https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/national-careers-week-2023-register
- I am scientist: https://imascientist.org.uk/teachers/?twitter=
- Art connect (West Mids): https://artsconnect.co.uk/national-careers-week/
You can find even more information over on Twitter by following @careersweek
Whatever you choose to do next week with your students enjoy it! Enjoy talking about careers, enjoy getting excited about all the future options and enjoy asking all those questions!