Career Connect is one of only four organisations awarded funding from the Careers and Enterprise Company’s first phase of its national £2.5m Personal Guidance Fund to deliver support to young people in schools and colleges and to improve their future employability.
The Careers and Enterprise Company issued the Personal Guidance Fund as a response to the Government’s Careers Strategy and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Benchmarks of good practice in careers provision. The Fund has been designed to test innovative and cost-effective models of personal guidance that develop best practice and case studies, which can then be scaled up and integrated across the wider education system.
Personal guidance is vital for students to make realistic and informed decisions about their future careers. Every student is now expected to have a personal guidance interview with a qualified careers adviser before they are 16 years old, and the opportunity for a further interview by the time they are 18.
Chief Executive Kieran Gordon announced that “Career Connect works to support and enable young people and adults to make well-informed career choices and improve their future life chances. Our success in gaining Personal Guidance funding from the Careers and Enterprise Company means we can use our expertise and experience to ensure more young people are well prepared to make the most of their potential.”
He continued “We have years of experience in supporting career development from school through to the workplace and we are particularly keen to support the key growth sectors through working with businesses in the Liverpool City Region and across the North-West. Through the Personal Guidance Fund, we are delivering an inspirational programme of personal guidance activities in six schools in the Liverpool City Region and six in Greater Manchester that will raise their pupils’ aspirations and work with teaching and pastoral staff to deliver the best possible outcomes for their students.”
Through this personal guidance programme, Career Connect Advisors will motivate, inform, and engage pupils in effective career planning through the use of innovative digital tools involving the whole-school community. For the more vulnerable students, targeted support will be offered to help address the barriers they face and to build the skills necessary for future success.
Career Connect is currently providing careers advice and guidance services in schools across the Liverpool City Region and in Salford and Manchester; seeking to ensure young people receive effective career management support to make realistic choices through aspirational, inspirational and motivational (AIM) activity. In addition to one-to-one personal guidance, enterprise and employability support, Career Connect’s delivery in schools and colleges includes curriculum consultancy, digital tools, psychometric assessments, targeted group sessions and world of work experiences and placements in conjunction with local businesses and enterprise.