Future Horizons Programme
We are committed to providing our pupils in Years 7 to 11 and the Sixth Form a comprehensive programme of careers education, information, advice and guidance and work-related learning. This is called the Future Horizons Programme.
The Future Horizons Team includes Mrs Pascoe (Head of Careers), Mr Morris (Assistant Headteacher, Personal Development) and Miss Mather (Head of Sixth Form).
Mrs Pascoe, Head of Careers is Level 6 qualified in Career Guidance and Development and a Careers Development Institute (CDI) Registered Career Development Professional. She has 20 years of experience in private sector recruitment and working in further education before moving to Writhlington School in 2014. She has worked at Beechen Cliff School for three years on a part time basis and is in school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Mrs Pascoe can be contacted via email: epascoe@beechencliff.org.uk
We offer support, advice and guidance to all pupils and their parents/carers. It is a friendly, confidential and impartial service. Whether you know exactly what you aspire to do or have no idea, we can support you in a wide range of topics from Sixth Form, Further and Higher Education, Apprenticeships, the labour market or taking a gap year.
All pupils take part in a careers programme that:
- Aims to inspire as well as inform and guide pupils
- Is centred around the pupil and their needs
- Is integrated into the pupils’ experience of the whole curriculum
- Encourages all pupils to consider their career throughout Key Stages 3, 4 and 5
- Encourages all pupils to develop decision making skills
- Provides each pupil with high quality, impartial advice
- Raises aspirations and promotes equality and diversity
Overview of Careers Programme
Future Horizons Pupil Journey – Years 7 – 13
For more information on the Achieving Ambitions Days (one of our Ignite Days) please click here.
The 2017 Government Careers Strategy outlined plans to roll out 20 Careers Hubs across the country after a successful pilot scheme in the North East. We were delighted to be included in the South West of England Careers Hub bid in July 2018 which was approved.
Careers Hub Aims
To empower schools & colleges to improve outcomes for their pupils through the Gatsby Benchmarks & strategic collaboration. We review our Careers Programme three times a year using the Careers & Enterprise Company’s Compass Tool – which is a careers benchmark tool.
About Compass
Compass is a free resource for schools and colleges in England that quickly and easily helps to evaluate our careers activity against the eight benchmarks of best practice – known as the Gatsby Benchmarks, these are listed below:
- Gatsby Benchmark 1 – A stable careers programme
- Gatsby Benchmark 2 – Learning from career and labour market information
- Gatsby Benchmark 3 – Addressing the needs of each pupil
- Gatsby Benchmark 4 – Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Gatsby Benchmark 5 – Encounters with employers and employees
- Gatsby Benchmark 6 – Experiences of workplaces
- Gatsby Benchmark 7 – Encounters with further and higher education
- Gatsby Benchmark 8 – Personal guidance
The tool was built in partnership with the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, to help us discover our strengths and find areas for improvement. We review these regularly to ensure we provide the best programme we can.
The following document demonstrates how we meet the Gatsby Benchmarks across the school.
Gatsby Benchmarks – Whole School Justification document 22-23
Parents/Carers
We work closely with parents/carers to support their child/children to make informed career choices. Parents and carers are encouraged to attend the careers events, information evenings and options evenings. We also ask for parents to volunteer to contribute to our careers programme throughout the year.
Parents/carers are always welcome to contact Mrs Pascoe, Head of Careers epascoe@beechencliff.org.uk to seek advice and ask any questions you might have regarding their child’s careers pathway.
We also regularly provide careers information via our weekly newsletter and year group Careers Classrooms and encourage parents to explore the opportunities available and to have conversation with their children.
Our Careers Link Governor, Martin Birchall, is Managing Director of High Fliers Research which is an independent market research company specialising in student and graduate recruitment research. He ran a session with our Sixth Form pupils on Friday 2nd December – please find his presentation here for your information Graduate Job Market 2022
Work Experience
Work Experience is always important, especially now in our current economic climate. Therefore, gaining more work related experience is likely to give you an advantage in the labour market by the time you leave full-time education.
The placement with an employer is for a period of one week, where pupils will learn about a particular job. Whilst on the Work Experience placement pupils will be able to find out about the types of skills employers look for when they are recruiting. This opportunity also develops communication skills and self confidence.
Work Experience will take place for Year 10 and Year 12 pupils in the last week of the summer term.
Useful Websites
- Careerpilot offers expert careers information and tools for 11-19 year olds, all in one place www.careerpilot.org.uk (Beechen Cliff achieved Super User Status for Career Pilot in February 2022 and the certificate is available here)
- The National Careers Service https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/
- Apprentices and Amazing Apprenticeships provides information about apprenticeships
- UCAS – Helping you find your dream job https://www.ucas.com/careers-advice
- Plotr is a website created to help 11-24 year olds discover and explore careers they’ll love. https://careers.startprofile.com/page/home-page#pupils
- LifeSkills, created with Barclays, is a free, curriculum-linked programme, developed with teachers to help improve the skills and employability of young people in the UK.
- icould has a range of video clips showing real people talking about their jobs and careers. https://icould.com/
- Prospects – Looking for that perfect career? We guide millions of pupils to make the right choice. Match your skills and personality to 400+ job profiles.
- Gap Year Information and Opportunities – Omio,VSO,UCAS
Baker Clause Statement
As part of our commitment to providing our pupils with the greatest level of careers guidance and the full range of education, training and employment pathways, we fully welcome the opportunity for external providers to speak with our pupils, parents and staff. We have an established relationship with a range of providers, and we would be very happy to consider requests from any provider of further and higher education, whether in relation to academic, vocational or technical pathways and apprenticeships.
Opportunities may include school assemblies to year groups and other specific pupil groups or offering participation in events and activities as part of the Future Horizons programme. The quality and impact of the programme is monitored by Senior Leadership and the School Governors. All requests will be considered based on the quality and impact of the proposed activity, staffing availability, or disruption to already planned activities and assessments. Beechen Cliff will endeavour to offer suitable space; for example the school hall, for the purposes of agreed activities once approval has been granted.