FUTURE TALENTED Autumn Term 2019 - Issue 4 | Seite 12

Reflecting on the
progress of careers
leadership
Careers leaders are now an identifiable workforce in schools and progress is encouraging,
according to two major surveys by the Careers & Enterprise Company. Joe Lepper reports.
C
areers education is “improving
everywhere” in England according
to the Careers & Enterprise
Company’s (CEC) State of the
Nation report for 2019. Drawing on data
collected via its Compass self-assessment tool
from 3,826 state-funded schools and colleges,
it concludes that progress can be seen across
the country, with schools serving disadvantaged
communities among the highest performers.
More than 2,800 schools and colleges have
completed the Compass audit twice – and
show improvements on every dimension.
Headway has been particularly strong around
‘encounters with employers and employees’,
‘linking curriculum learning to careers’,
establishing ‘a stable careers programme’ and
‘encounters with further and higher education’.
Over half of schools and colleges are
achieving benchmarks 8 (personal guidance)
and 7 (encounters with employers and
employees).
An identifiable workforce
The report highlights the vital role of careers
leaders in sustaining improvement. However,
it adds that this workforce needs to become
“more embedded to achieve the step change
needed within schools and colleges” and
acknowledges that educators “will continue
to need support through resources, training
and networks to achieve across the
benchmarks”.
To gauge the views and perspectives of
careers leaders themselves, the CEC and the
Gatsby Charitable Foundation undertook a
separate major survey between March and
12 // STRATEGY SPOTLIGHT
Careers
guidance is a
complex activity
whose activities
need skilled
orchestration.
Careers leaders
are the
conductors of
the orchestra
Sir John Holman,
Gatsby Foundation
April, involving 750 participants across state
secondary schools and colleges in England.
Entitled Careers Leaders in Secondary
Schools: The first year, its findings show that
careers leadership is fast becoming a staple
element of secondary school life. Since the
government’s 2017 Careers Strateg y
recommended the official establishment of
the role, more careers leaders have been
recruited, there is a greater commitment to
their training and many are either sitting on, or
reporting directly to, schools’ leadership teams.
This new body of careers leaders is highly
motivated, and members feel confident in their
work , according to the sur vey. The
“game-changing” Gatsby Benchmarks are
helping them to identify and address
weaknesses in careers programmes.
Careers leaders are now “an identifiable
workforce”, the report states, with the
recruitment of careers leaders by schools
and colleges on the rise: four in ten careers
leaders (42%) were hired during 2018-19
and 84% of schools and colleges have
underpinned the role with training or are
planning to do so.
Close to two-thirds (65%) of careers
leaders say that careers guidance has
become a higher priority for their
school or college’s senior leadership
team since the Careers Strategy
was published, while a third believe
it has stayed the same. Just 2%
think the importance of careers
leadership had reduced. Overall,
the vast majority (88%) of
careers leaders believe they are