Careers Guidance & Post 16
Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance
CEIAG (Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance) is designed to prepare students for life in modern Britain and by definition is a means of developing a young person's knowledge, understanding, confidence and skills so that they are able to make well-informed and thought through choices relating to further learning and work, now and in the future.
Lodge Park Academy aims to provide good quality, impartial information, advice and guidance to all students from Year 7 to Year 13. This guidance allows us to support our students and allow them to make information decisions for their post-16 choices following Year 11, but also their option choices for GCSE subjects in Year 9.
All information published on the CEIAG webpage will be reviewed at the end of each academic term.
The CEIAG plan in school is reviewed each year and was last reviewed on the 10/7/24.
Who to contact for more information
Our Careers Leader is Mr York, who can be contacted via email ayork@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk or by phone on 01536 203817
Measuring the impact of CEIAG
As an academy we use Compass Plus – the careers benchmark tool as outlined in the Gatsby benchmarks to assess and constantly improve our current CEIAG provision.
Our progress against the Gatsby benchmarks is reviewed regularly throughout the academic year to ensure we meet all 8 benchmarks.
As an academy we work with parents, employers and stakeholders to ensure that students are able to make informed choices about their future.
Students
Students will cover different topics throughout the year related to careers across Year 7 to Year 11.
In Year 12 and 13 these skills are covered more frequently and relate directly to the specific requirements needed at this age. The plans for each year group are viewable from the academy website.
Making Choices
Don’t panic if you can’t decide which direction to go in or which courses would best suit your needs.
- Talk to your parents, teachers and Careers Adviser about the best option for YOU
- Do your research – use the websites and other sources of information to help make YOUR decision
- This is the first time in your lives where you are making a huge decision, its YOUR decision, stand strong with YOUR choices
- Aim high, we have every confidence in YOU. Challenge YOURSELF and go for it!
- This year is important, don’t lose sight of your GCSE exams, the grades matter when it comes to your next step
“Things to Consider”
- Focus – what are your expectations, aspirations, do you have an idea of career choice?
- Information – have you done your research, looked at labour market information, thought about training and qualifications, universities?
- Realistic – are their thoughts realistic? Do you want to be a tomato picker but they are colour blind? If you don’t want to leave home what options are there locally for you or is the sky the limit?
- Scope – how far can you go in their chosen career, are you aiming at the right pitch, have they thought about how far you can go in this field?
- Tactics – moving forward, what next, what does the development of this idea look like?
If you would like more information about careers or employer engagement at Lodge Park please contact our Careers Leader is Mr York, who can be contacted via email ayork@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk or by phone on 01536 203817.
Parents and carers
All students are required to continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they are 18.
As a parent or carer we would really appreciate any feedback you can offer on the careers programme offered at Lodge Park Academy by completing the parent/carer careers survey.
This does not mean however that young people must stay in school or remain at Lodge Park Academy.
Students are able to choose from the following:
- full-time education (e.g. at a school or college)
- an apprenticeship or traineeship
- part-time education or training combined with one of the following:
- employment or self-employment for 20 hours or more a week
- volunteering for 20 hours or more a week
We use an independent careers service to make sure young people most in need of specialist help can access the guidance and support they require to move into education, employment and training. This one-to-one service is offered in Lodge Park Academy to targeted students and referrals to this service will come via the Careers Leader, Heads of Year and SENDCo. The majority of students receive their guidance from these sessions and visitors within the academy.
Useful websites on Careers
www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship
The government website has details of all apprenticeships available nationwide.
nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk
This national careers service website provides information, advice and guidance to students to help them make decisions on learning, training and work.
This website provides information needed for careers in the NHS.
www.careersadviceforparents.org
A website for parents and carers which offers advice that can be given to help teenagers choose their career path.
A website for parents and carers which offers free and impartial advice from the Careers Writers Association about your child’s next steps.
www.semlep.com/labour-market-information
SEMLEP stands for South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership. They work with local companies to look at economic growth and support local schools with developing careers programs and sharing information.
A website which is used to apply for university by students in Year 13.
A website which compares the best University & degree courses for free - Degree course rankings, university reviews, degree course details and university profiles to help students decide where to study.
The Russell Group represents 24 leading UK universities which are committed to maintaining the very best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience and unrivaled links with business and the public sector.
Websites for the army, navy and RAF.
A website which explains the routes into policing.
vinspired is the UK's leading volunteering charity for 14 - 25 year olds. vinspired helps young people to make their mark on causes that they care about, whilst learning new skills and talents along the way.
Careersbox is the national careers film library, a free careers resource showing hundreds of real people doing real jobs.
careermap.co.uk/careermag-students-teachers
Careermag is an online information magazine for parents, carers, students and teachers where they can get up to date Labour Market Information and career support and advice.
Teachers
Wherever the opportunity arises our teachers will discuss in their subject areas about the career opportunities related to their subject specialism.
As a teacher we would really appreciate any feedback you can offer on the careers programme offered at Lodge Park Academy by completing the teacher careers survey.
Staff are also able to offer guidance at parent’s evenings.
Employers
If you are an employer and can help Lodge Park Academy with its careers programme, please complete the following form, we would particularly welcome support with talks and assemblies, work shadowing, mentoring, insight days, workplace visits/experience and careers days.
As an employer we would really appreciate any feedback you can offer on the careers programme offered at Lodge Park Academy by completing the employer careers survey.
At Lodge Park Academy we want to work with employers as research shows that young adults who have greater levels of contact with employers whilst at school are significantly less likely to become NEET (not in education, employment or training) and can expect, when in full-time employment, to earn up to 18% more than peers who had no such workplace encounters.
Access for Employers and other Colleges
- Lodge Park Academy uses the Gatsby Benchmarks as a guide to plan our Careers Provision. As part of our commitment to informing our students of the full range of learning and training pathways on offer to them, we are happy to consider requests from training, apprenticeship and vocational education providers to speak to students.
- Lodge Park Academy also seeks to build relationships with these partners as we plan our ‘GCSE Option” programme in Year 9 and ready our Key Stage 4 students to make the transition into 6th forms, colleges and higher education. This will ensure that providers have opportunities to speak to students and their parents across Years 8 to 13, to offer information on vocational, technical and apprenticeship qualifications and pathways.
- Through working externally with the Careers & Enterprise Company and South East Midlands Growth Hub (SEM Growth Hub) ensures that staff involved in careers guidance are up to date on their knowledge of these Post-16 pathways.
- Opportunities for providers to speak with students may include school assemblies, webinars, careers talks, employer and provider engagement events or opportunities to speak with students and parents on a one-to-one basis supporting GCSE, and Post-16 option choices.
- Lodge Park Academy’s Careers provision is monitored for quality and impact by the school’s Senior Leadership and Governance Teams and monitoring of access to and opportunities to engage with, technical, vocational and training providers will form part of this process.
- In the first instance, requests by providers should be sent to the Careers Leader, Mr York ayork@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk with a minimum of 6 weeks’ lead time.
- All requests will be considered on the basis of; staffing availability to support the activity, clashes with other planned activities, trips or visits, interruption to preparation for examinations or rooming and space availability to host the activity.
- All requests will be also be considered in line with the school’s Safeguarding Policy which can be found on the school website.
Opportunities to engage with us
If you are an employer and can help Lodge Park Academy with its careers programme by offering any of the following below then please contact ayork@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk
- Guest speakers (employer engagement) for National Careers Week (3rd to 7th March 2025) - All year groups
- STEM Assemblies – All year groups
- Labour Market Information - All year groups
- Workplace visits – All year groups
- Local companies willing to participate in our careers fair.
- Hosts for work experience for year 12 in the follow sectors:
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Healthcare
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Dentistry
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Physiotherapy
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Music
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Childcare
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Emergency Medicine (paramedic)
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Education
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IT
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Social Work
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Accountancy
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Sports
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Animal care
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Pharmaceuticals
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Architecture
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Biochemistry
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Aerospace Engineering
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Theatre
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Art
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