What is CEIAG?
A young person’s career is the progress they make through learning and work. All young people need access to good quality careers education and information advice & guidance (CEIAG) to help them to choose 14-19 pathways that are right for them and to be able to manage their careers and sustain employability throughout their lives. It is statutory for all secondary schools to provide a programme of careers education to all pupils in years 7-11 and to provide young people with access to impartial information, advice and guidance.
How is CEIAG delivered at Biddenham?
Careers Lessons
Students receive lessons on Key Stage 4 Option choices, Post-16 Option choices, and preparing for and reviewing work experience. These happen within Citizenship lessons and are updated annually to reflect changes locally, regionally and nationally.
SCRIPT Days (collapsed timetable day)
In 2010 we introduced SCRIPT days. These days have been designed to develop the personal, learning and thinking skills of our students and have been collaboratively planned by staff teams in cross curricular groups. Currently all Year 11 students will experience a careers themed day. This aims to develop students' self awareness and knowledge of the world of work, and provides them with skills to plan their career journey. We invite professionals from a range of sectors and industries to come into school to work with our students for part of the day.
Tutor Time
Tutors play a critical role in students' career learning and planning in a number of ways:
- Meeting with their tutees regularly for academic mentoring one-to-one to discuss tutees views/progress on CEIAG issues affecting them.
- In year 9 and year 11 conducting in-depth guidance interviews with their tutees. This interview will focus specifically on Key Stage 4 option choices and Post 16 option choices respectively. Tutors are given guidance on this by the Careers Education manager and the Leadership team at the school.
- Disseminating and collecting crucial CEIAG information to and from students when required. For example, information on college open evenings, delivering and discussing careers PowerPoints, collecting destination information, etc.
- Attending assemblies on CEIAG issues with their tutees and then reflecting on and discussing with tutees how this impacts on them.
- Providing information on their tutees where required. For example, for work experience, future planning etc.
Parents'/Options Evenings
We aim to work with parents to achieve our goals. To do this effectively there is representation at the majority of parents' evenings and SCRIPT for Success days by our Careers Education manager. Where relevant there is also representation from outside providers (e.g. apprenticeship providers, Bedford College, etc.).
Whole School Approach
We aim to raise awareness of key CEIAG issues throughout the year by highlighting events such as National Apprenticeship Week to students. We also aim to embed CEIAG within activities across the school. For example, we invite employers and education establishments to attend and get involved in events at school (e.g. the Arts Festival). Staff are also asked to consider how they can embed information about career learning and work into their subject teaching. Regular meetings are held with the Applied Learning Implementation Group (ALI-G). Each department in school is represented and issues relating to this are discussed. The aim is to help students to understand how what they are learning at school fits into the wider context of work and learning.
