Careers Programme

Careers Guidance at Graham School

At Graham School, every student has access to personalised careers guidance. By Key Stage 4, our Careers Advisor Mrs Harker, works one-to-one with all students, beginning in Year 10 with a follow-up appointment in Year 11 to support their next steps.

We also welcome parents and carers to arrange appointments to discuss Post-16 options and pathways.

Working closely with colleges, training providers, universities, and employers, we offer a wide range of experiences to help students explore their future choices. Part of our careers programme includes, Work experience opportunities, Visits and taster sessions at colleges and universities and ‘Meet the Employer’ sessions.

In addition, we provide a variety of resources and career packages to assist students in making informed decisions about their futures. These can be accessed anytime through the school’s Learning Portal.

If you have any questions about our Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) provision, please contact us.

Gatsby Benchmarks

The purpose of the careers guidance interview is to help you to consider your career options and to make informed, suitable and achievable career decisions. The Gatsby Benchmarks are a framework of 8 guidelines that define the best careers provision in schools and colleges. The Careers Strategy is built around the benchmarks and we at Graham school strive to achieve this. In addition we are working toward the Quality in Careers standard and our assessment is due in early December.

What are the eight benchmarks?

The eight benchmarks are a framework for good career guidance developed to support schools in providing students with the best possible careers education, information, advice, and guidance. They were established as part of Sir John Holman's research into what pragmatic actions could improve career guidance in England, and lay out what a world-class career guidance system looks like. The Benchmarks form part of the careers strategy, launched December 2017. 

The eight Gatsby Benchmarks are:

1. A stable careers programme
Every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education and guidance that is known and understood by pupils, parents, teachers and employers.

2. Learning from career and labour market information
Every pupil, and their parents, should have access to good quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities. They will need the support of an informed adviser to make best use of available information.

3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
Pupils have different career guidance needs at different stages. Opportunities for advice and support need to be tailored to the needs of each pupil. A school’s careers programme should embed equality and diversity considerations throughout.

4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers. For example, STEM subject teachers should highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths.

5. Encounters with employers and employees
Every pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. This can be through a range of enrichment activities including visiting speakers, mentoring and enterprise schemes.

6. Experiences of workplaces
Every pupil should have first-hand experiences* of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks.

7. Encounters with further and higher education
All pupils should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace.

8. Personal guidance
Every pupil should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a careers adviser, who could be internal (a member of school staff) or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level. These should be available whenever significant study or career choices are being made. They should be expected for all pupils but should be timed to meet their individual needs.

Meet the professional

As part of our mission to increase employer contact for our students we run a programme called “Meet the Professional” you may have seen our sessions advertised on social media each week and in the “Graham Gazette.” We have had a wide selection so far; Nursing, Photography, working with Horses, Physiotherapy, careers in Film and TV and many more….

As part of this programme, we invite guest professionals from as many career pathways as possible in order to inform our students of the breadth of careers available to them in line with their abilities and interests. The talks are very interesting and inspirational for our students and we would welcome contact from any parents and employers, many of you may be both, to contact school if you would be willing to speak with our students about your profession.

If you think you could offer a session to our students we would really like to hear from you. 

Please get in touch!

Pippa Harker
Careers Adviser

E: p.harker@gra.hlt.academy