New funding will improve careers education for young people across the area.
The Black Country Skills Factory have launched a second Careers Hub which, funded by The Careers & Enterprise Company, will enable an additional fifty-plus Black Country Schools and FE colleges in the area to belong to a Careers Hub aimed at supporting careers education with young people. The launch event took place at GTG Training in Wednesfield on Tuesday and was attended by over 90 people.
The first Careers Hub, launched in Sept 2018, has seen a significant increase in the number and variety of stakeholders that schools are now engaging with and is seen as an example of good practice in Careers Education nationally.
Working in collaboration with Cornerstone Employers – employers signed up to work with Schools and Colleges in the Hub – schools are working to improve careers education and help prepare young people for the world of work. Currently these include: KPMG; A F Blackmore; Wolverhampton Homes; Accord; Howells Glazing; Thomas Dudley; and Walsall Council.
The Careers Hub sees these Cornerstone employers work with schools and colleges to support them in achieving the Gatsby benchmarks, these are a set of benchmarks identified nationally for good Careers Education and include delivering: A stable careers programme; Learning from career and labour market information; Addressing the needs of each pupil; Linking curriculum learning to careers; Encounters with employers and employees; Experiences of workplaces; Encounters with further and higher education; and Personal guidance. The existing Black Country Careers Hub is currently outperforming the national average in five of the eight Gatsby benchmarks.
Stewart Towe, Chair of the Black Country LEP, said: “Our first Black Country Careers Hub demonstrated the positive impact Hubs like these can have on careers education and the number of schools and colleges achieving these Gatsby benchmarks has been fantastic.
“This new investment in a second Careers Hub is great news and demonstrates that the Black Country leads the way in providing careers education that fits the needs of the economy and improves the prospects for all young people across the Black Country.”
James Ludlow, Principal at The King’s Church of England School, Wolverhampton added: “Our careers strategy and provision came out very strongly in our Ofsted report and this is great evidence of the work being done by the Careers Hub, Enterprise Adviser Network, and Careers Leaders. Ofsted were very interested in what we are doing and how we work with The Careers & Enterprise Company and other stakeholders to provide careers education. The announcement of a second Careers Hub is great news for careers education in the Black Country.”
Further information is available here
