Fantastic Futures

Fantastic Futures @ Brannel

Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance

Our Fantastic Futures Programme is about preparing our students today for the jobs of tomorrow. Fantastic Futures is about raising aspirations, raising achievement and nurturing enterprise capability in every young person. This is how we are ensuring that they are leaving our school with the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace. 

At Brannel, we believe that a focus on every child’s future should begin early. A future career seems a long way off for most primary age children and making a connection between what they learn in primary school and the jobs they might one day pursue is not easy. That is why we are working with our cluster primary schools to ensure that every child completes an Aspirations Passport. This helps us to develop a bespoke careers, advice and guidance programme for each child when they join us in Year 7. 

The Gatsby Benchmarks

Our Fantastic Futures programme is based on a national framework of eight guidelines about what makes the best careers provision in schools and colleges. Sir John Holman, a former Headteacher and founder of the National STEM Learning Centre, was asked by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to undertake an independent, international review of career guidance. He visited six countries, analysed good practice in English schools and did a comprehensive review of current literature. From all of this, Sir John wrote the Good Career Guidance Report. In the report he identifies what ‘good’ looks like and outlines a framework of eight benchmarks that schools can use to improve their career guidance system. The eight benchmarks now form part of the government’s careers strategy, launched December 2017.

>> Gatsby Benchmarks 

Making the Curriculum Relevant

Fantastic Futures is about providing ‘real life’ opportunities for students to see the relevance of the curriculum in order to motivate them to excel in their education. We are connecting our students with future employers from business and industry and creating meaningful links between learning in school and the world of work through the delivery of REAL projects as part of our Brannel Challenge co-curricular offer. Activities take many forms such as enterprise related projects, work simulations, careers insight talks, career days, subject talks and activities, workplace visits and Challenge Week. This means that every year from Year 7, our students participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer. 

Brannel is an active member of Cornwall’s Enterprise Adviser Network which works in partnership with Cornwall’s Local Enterprise Partnership. Through the Network we work with a combination of local and national businesses to create meaningful work encounters for our students.

Cornwall is Fantastic!  There is so much happening here that is truly inspirational. Cornwall now provides a diverse, strong and sustainable economic platform across the major economic growth sectors. We want our young people to be aware of all the opportunities on their doorstep; and we want this awareness to ‘inspire young people to aspire’. For our teachers, on a personal level it is wonderful to see a spark of interest ignited in a student who may have previously felt disconnected from school.

Focus for 2018-19: Our Strategic Careers Programme

We will be working with Cornwall’s Enterprise Adviser Network, the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) and others to focus on trying new approaches and understanding what works. This includes:

  • the importance of engaging young people with careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
  • targeted support for specific groups of disadvantaged young people, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

 Key Programme Documents

 

>> Brannel Careers and Enterprise Plan 2018-19

>> Brannel Fantastic Futures – Annual Review 2016-17

>> Brannel School Fantastic Futures Strategy 2016-19

>> Brannel CEIAG education pathways offer

>> Brannel cluster primaries – Aspirations Passport

 

 

 

Programme Leadership

As a team, our Fantastic Futures leaders are responsible and accountable for: planning, implementing and quality assuring a careers programme for the school; managing the deliver of career guidance; networking with external partners, including employers; coordinating the contributions of careers teachers, subject teachers, tutors and SENDCo. They have a clear overview of careers provision at Brannel and ensure that the school meets the Gatsby Benchmarks. 

  • Strategic programme leadership is provided by Ms Fletcher, Brannel’s School Business and Enterprise Manager, who is a member of the school’s Senior Leadership Team. 
  • Mr Worthington is our Careers Leader and also a teacher of mathematics. He is responsible for delivering the school’s careers education, information, advice and guidance programme.
  • Ms Pedlar, who is also our Extended Schools Project Manager, is developing a sustainable alumni programme and liaises with ex-Brannel students. Our aim is to encourage ex-students to inspire our current students by demonstrating what can be achieved by “people like me”.
  • Mrs Dyer, who is also a teacher of PE, delivers our Year 10 work experience programme.
  • Mr Dixon, who is a governor of Brannel School, a NET Director and Director of Falmouth University’s LaunchPad programme, is the school’s Enterprise Adviser. He works closely with our careers leaders as part of Cornwall’s Enterprise Adviser Programme and, on behalf of our Local Governing Body, takes a strategic interest in careers education and guidance and encourages employer engagement.

Independent Careers Guidance

Each of our students is provided with independent careers guidance by Careers 4U. This helps us to ensure that our careers guidance:

  • is presented in an impartial manner, showing no bias or favouritism towards a particular institution, education or work option;
  • includes information on the range of education or training options, including apprenticeships and technical education routes;
  • is guidance that the person giving it considers will promote the best interests of the students to whom it is given.

Provider Access Policy Statement

At Brannel School we ensure that there is an opportunity for a range of education and training providers to access all students for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships. This is part of a broader approach to ensuring that our students are aware of the full range of academic and technical routes available to them at each transition point. Our policy statement sets out arrangements for provider access.

>> Technical education and apprenticeships-raising awareness Policy Dec 2017

Learning from Labour Market Information

Labour market information (LMI) can help young people and their parents/carers to understand the salaries and promotion opportunities for different jobs, and the volume and location of vacancies across different sectors. At Brannel we encourage students to access and use information about career paths and the labour market to inform their decisions on study options. 

LMI can be accessed from a range of sources. For example:

  • The National Careers Service offers information and professional advice about education, training and work to adults and young people aged 13 years and over. Students and their parents/carers can access support via their website, helpline and web chat.
  • The government funds a high quality LMI service called LMI for All which is used by a number of providers, including the National Careers Service.

Should I apply for an apprenticeship or university?

An apprenticeship is a skilled job with training. Every apprentice is guaranteed a minimum wage linked to their age. They are available at all academic levels – whether you are leaving school without GCSEs or completing your A-levels. There are apprenticeships in industries like engineering, health and accountancy – plus a host of careers you might never think of. And 9 in 10 apprentices stay in work after completing their course.

University is essential for certain careers and great for those with passionate academic interests. However, apprenticeships can now offer a route into high-skilled jobs that you had to go to university to train for in the past. If you know what career path you want to follow, an apprenticeship could get you there without the fees – while enabling you to develop employability skills too. Carefully consider the pros and cons of both university and apprenticeships before making your decision.

A higher apprenticeships is your ticket to a high-skilled job. You will usually need at least 2 A-levels to start one, and you will come out with qualifications equivalent to a foundation degree or higher – with any tuition fees paid by your employer. Higher apprentices can earn between £300-500 per week (although you may start lower). 

Degree apprenticeships guarantee you a university degree, as well as on-the-job training for a high-skilled job. You will spend 30 hours a week learning from experienced colleagues at work, and the equivalent of one day studying towards a bachelor’s or master’s degree at uni or college. It gives you the kudos and academic grounding of a degree along with sought-after employability skills employers say graduates don’t have. 

Useful Links

www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship
This service will help you search and apply for an Apprenticeship vacancy. www.cornwallapprenticeshipagency.co.uk
This offers a new & unique approach to recruiting apprentices in Cornwall, providing an expert, personalised service and also gives information about available funding. www.orangeo.org.uk/about
Orangeo is a free resource website set up by a current apprentice to promote the positives of Apprenticeships. The aim is to inform young people to the advantages of Apprenticeships and help them to become more informed and positive towards Apprenticeships. www.getingofar.gov.uk
Lots of information and advice on apprenticeships including parental guidance. www.ucas.com
Higher Education information. www.bestcourse4me.com/explore
Provides information for students on the wage returns to particular degrees and universities. www.careerpilot.org.uk
Find links to explore your choices at 14, 16 and 18. There are routes to different qualifications and job sectors, and career tools to help you decide. It covers training opportunities across the south west and there are online advisers to offer advice. www.careersbox.co.uk
Excellent site for all careers advice including film clips. www.plotr.co.uk
Play the Game to find a career you love. The Game analyses your personality, interests and needs in life to help you find the best careers for you. www.icould.com
icould gives you the inside story of how careers work. The icould storytellers relate, in their own words, their real life career journeys. From telecoms engineers to police officers, from landscape gardeners to web designers, from engine drivers to zookeepers; they talk about what they do, what it’s like, how they came to be where are and their hopes for the future. www.careercamel.com
Career Camel is a free platform to provide career inspiration, guidance and fair access to opportunities for all young people and educational institutions. They offer a number of free resources and tools covering careers guidance, routes to employment, interview techniques, cv writing, introductory lessons for industry and a job board to connect users with a range of opportunities from apprenticeships through to graduate jobs.

www.nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk

The National Careers Service provides information, advice and guidance on learning, training and work opportunities. The service offers confidential and impartial advice, supported by qualified careers advisers. They aim to:

  • help you with careers decisions and planning
  • support you in reviewing your skills and abilities and develop new goals
  • motivate you to implement your plan of action
  • enable you to make the best use of high quality career related tools
www.milkround.com
The UK’s most widely used school leavers and graduate job website, this site gives lots of tips on writing CVs, covering letters, application forms and interview techniques. Free to subscribe and they will email you suitable vacancies when they become available. www.nuevoo.co.uk
Free job search engine offering over 800,000 jobs in the UK which is constantly being updated. Search by area or type in ’school leaver’ and it should bring up lots of potentially suitable vacancies.

 

 

National Careers ServiceDuchy College  Cornwall College Careers South West Apprenticeships