Careers Advice and Guidance

At Great Wyrley Academy, we support our students with a structured careers curriculum featuring a range of experiences and tools designed to provide them with the information required for their future careers. Independent and impartial guidance is provided by our Careers Advisor Ms Flint. 

If students require more information or additional personal guidance then they may email our Careers Leader vsmith1@greatwyrley.windsoracademytrust.org.uk to request this.

Aims

Great Wyrley has the following objectives in line with the Gatsby Eight Benchmarks for Careers Excellence when delivering the careers programme in school.  We assess the impact of our Careers programme against these benchmarks using the Compass+ tool.

• To plan and provide a stable careers programme for our learners
• To expose students to relevant labour market information (LMI)
• To address the needs of all students
• To link curriculum learning to careers
• To provide opportunities for students to encounter employers and employees
• To support students to obtain work experience placements at years 10 and 12
• To provide opportunities for students to encounter further and higher education
• To provide personal guidance to students on careers education]

Guidance on the Gatsby Benchmarks can be found here.

Information for Students

Careers Information and Guidance (CIAG) is available every day to support you in making choices about future careers and industry opportunities. Nothing is beyond your reach. Throughout your time in school, we will support you to:

• discover your likes and interests 
• access work placements  
• meet employers and employees from a range of industries 
• write CV’s/letters of application 
• prepare for interviews 
• help you meet your potential. 

In the careers department, we want to give you as many opportunities as possible. Therefore we provide an extensive programme of events throughout your time in Year 7-13. During this time you will experience some or all the following activities: 

• Visits to higher education institutions.
• Work Experience
• Sessions with individuals who are specialists in various areas of industry.
• 1-2-1 Careers support.
• Apprenticeship/College/Sixth Form information sessions.
• Careers and enterprise challenges

Try the quizzes below to help you discover what careers/future job roles might be right for you:

• Your free career test
• Pearson career choices
• UCAS Buzz Quiz
• Careers quiz

At Great Wyrley Academy our careers curriculum provisions are evolving in the focus of providing the opportunities for students to build experience in meeting the CDI framework objectives.

Information for Parents

The Careers Information and Guidance (CIAG) programme supports your child’s progression into the world of higher education and/or work.

We want every Great Wyrley Academy student to:

• achieve their academic and personal potential;
• understand the full range of opportunities available to them; 
• learn from employers about work and the skills that are valuable in the workplace and to have first-hand experience of the workplace;  
• get an excellent programme of advice and guidance that is delivered by individuals with the right skills and experience; 
• get support tailored to their circumstances; 
• get the information they need to understand the job and career opportunities available, and how their knowledge and skills can help them in considering suitable careers.

Information for Employers

At Great Wyrley we work with the Stoke-On-Trent and Staffordshire Enterprise Partnership to ensure that we deliver the most effective careers programme possible. As part of this, we work with a number of employers from a variety of industries. It is our aim to provide encounters with employers and employees and experiences of the workplace, as set out in the Gatsby Benchmarks.

Gatsby Benchmark 5: Encounters with Employers and Employees

• To ensure that students receive at least ONE meaningful encounter with an employer during every year they are at school. 
• Increase the number of activities which are conducted within school with the support of local employers and parents. 
• To ensure that students have the opportunity to improve employability skills and their understanding of and awareness of entrepreneurship 
• To enable learners to gain the confidence to compete in the labour market by providing opportunities to gain the practical know-how and attributes that are relevant to gaining employment.
• Develop marketing materials for employers which will help them easily understand the impact of their involvement, the breadth of options available to them and the ways in which they can show they meet their corporate social responsibility.
• Create mechanisms where parents and alumni can express their interest to actively support employer related activity taking place within the school.

Gatsby Benchmark 6: Experiences of the Workplace

• To ensure that students receive at least ONE meaningful experience of the workplace by the end of year 11 
• To ensure that students receive at least ONE further meaningful experience of the workplace during year 12. 
• To increase the number of employer workplace visits that will take place to enable students to gain more of an understanding of the wide range of employment opportunities available within specific industry sectors.

How employers can support our students

Local employers can help support our students in the following ways:

• Work Experience for Year 10 or 12
• Visits to your workplace
• Talks and presentations to groups of students
• Support with interview practice and CV writing

Please find below 2 documents from the Office of Statistics - September 2021:

What will the Future Job Market Be Like?

Top Jobs of the Future

If you think you can support, please get in touch with us at vsmith1@greatwyrley.windsoracademytrust.org.uk