Careers

Priestley Careers Programme

At Priestley College we understand the nature of employment in the UK and beyond is constantly changing, with an increasingly competitive job market and rising university fees and the ‘gig’ economy.

In order to help inspire our students to meet the challenges set by these changes, we aim to provide a comprehensive package of impartial Careers Education Information, Advice and Guidance.

This CEIAG is available to students during the application process to college, during their studies, and to former students. A Careers Adviser is available for advice and guidance at all college events such as open and interview evenings as well as during enrolment.

All students have access to high quality CEIAG from experienced staff. This enables them to understand all available options and make informed decisions. It means they can plan their progression from college be that in Higher Education, an apprenticeship option including Higher/ Degree Level Apprenticeships, or some other progression route.

Relevant Labour Market Information is made available to all students and the college sits on the Local Enterprise Partnership’s Data and Labour Intelligence Market Steering Group. This group draws on data sources including national databases (eg. Nomis and Employers’ Skills Survey), local data sources (eg. EMSI Analyst toolkit and the ESFA data cube) and employers, to inform local skills and education priorities.

Career pathway and progression information is available on each course/subject page of the college’s website, allowing students and parents to research LMI directly relating to their existing or future study programmes and career aspirations.  This is also promoted positively through tutorials and research tools that all students have access to including Unifrog and the college website

The college CEIAG work is led by the Assistant Principal Mark Eccleston (Student Support Services) who is part of the college Senior Management Team.  The team underpinning this work includes the following individuals:

• Adam Bird – Marketing, Admissions and IAG Manager
• Mark Edgington – Senior Tutor responsible for Work Related Learning & Enrichment
• Chris Lee – Senior Tutor responsible for Progression
• Ian Edge – Careers Adviser
• Charlie Dunbar – Careers Adviser
• Pam Gardner – Industry Placement Coordinator
• Ruth Saastamoinen – Work Related Learning / Work Experience Project Post

The eight Gatsby benchmarks outline current best practice in CEIAG and as a college we are committed to ensuring our provision meets and exceeds these benchmarks. We are keen to ensure the opportunities and support we provide for students on all our programmes of study are of the very highest standard.

Much of this work takes place through the weekly tutorial system, and is recorded and evaluated using the Unifrog system (see below). In addition, we organise a programme of work experience, a series of speakers, workshops and visits throughout the academic year to provide students with the latest information about the local, national and international labour market, as well as specialist presentations from representatives of many professions and university departments.

CEIAG best practice is shared via The Challenge Academy Trust inter-school CEIAG Hub.  As a member of TCAT the college takes advantage of its partnership with Oxford University to ensure all students are challenged to reach their full potential. In addition, there are regular presentations about volunteering opportunities, which for many students are a crucial way of confirming their career ideas. The full programme is available above.

Advice and guidance is available from our qualified and experienced Careers Advisers who both hold the Level 6 Diploma in Careers Guidance. They are available in person, as well as via telephone and email every day, to offer one-to-one impartial guidance to students and their parents / carers, typical areas for discussion include;

• Long-term career choice
• Subject combinations
• University applications
• Student finance
• Apprenticeship & training opportunities
• Job search techniques
• Professional CV and letter writing

The college careers advisers deliver sessions within the tutorial programme to support our team of progress and personal tutors. There is a referral process between all college tutors and the careers advisers to identify students at the point when they will most benefit from one-to-one advice, as well as those at risk of having their college place withdrawn in order to prevent them from becoming NEET.

Careers advisers also liaise with a range of statutory agencies and partners such as the local authority ‘Warrington Life’ team to support students on completion of their studies at college.

All our classroom and individual careers work is supported and enhanced by a wide range of online resources as well as our Careers Moodle/Google Classroom pages, which all our students can access via any internet enabled device. This contains a wide range of resources, including labour market information, for students to use as part of their own career development.

The college self-assesses its CEIAG internally using quality assessment tools including the Careers and Enterprise Company ‘Compass’ tool and its own Gatsby criteria recording systems.  The Operations Management Team ensure that CEIAG is embedded across all faculty and pastoral areas of the college.

The fully integrated nature of the college’s work in relation to CEIAG has been recognised by the external quality assurance awarding and reaccreditation of the Matrix quality standard for information advice and guidance services since 2013.  In order to provide students with the most up to date information advice and guidance we also work with the following organisations: