At St Michael’s we aim to provide every opportunity for our pupils to flourish as a child of God; to grow in body, mind and spirit and experience ‘life in all its fullness’ and this is reflected in our comprehensive and effective careers programme.

We are proud of the depth and quality of experiences offered to our pupils across all years and feel it prepares our young people for success in the future, whether this be in higher education, training or employment.

Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) at St Michael’s forms an essential aspect of every pupils’ personal education and future well-being. Within Living Education, all year groups are taught about different aspects of Careers. In Year 7 we start by trying to raise our pupils’ aspirations and to challenge career stereotypes, while also introducing pupils to Unifrog (a career development platform).

As our pupils take their options in Year 9, we focus the Careers unit of work in Living Education to choosing their options and picking out strengths, interests and aspirations.  In Years 9 – 11 they begin learning how to write personal statements, their online reputation and learning what and how to use the labour market information.

In addition to Living Education, in Year 10 pupils also study a Careers lesson once every 4 weeks, where local colleges and apprenticeship providers come in to school to teach our pupils about their different Post-16 pathway options, spotlighting A-Levels, apprenticeships, T-Levels and vocational courses. In line with the school’s legal duty under the ‘Baker Clause’ (2018) pupils are provided opportunities for encounters with a range of education and training providers for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

The pupils are also provided taster sessions for subjects they have not yet studied, for example, Sociology, Psychology or Law, to give them insight into what the pursuit of these subjects might include. The feedback we get from our pupils in Year 10 about this programme is really positive.

Within the individual curriculum areas pupils are introduced to career pathways linked to the specific subject discipline, showcasing how and where that subject could lead them. We are continually developing our curriculum area content by embedding more career guidance.

The CEIAG provision outlined above aims to meet The Gatsby Benchmarks, which are a national framework containing eight guidelines that define the best careers provision in schools and colleges. The quality of St Michael’s CEIAG programme is reviewed and assessed annually against The Gatsby Benchmarks by The Careers and Enterprise Company Compass Tracker.

These are the eight Gatsby Benchmarks:

A stable careers programme

Learning from Career & Labour Market Information

Addressing the needs of each pupil

Linking curriculum learning to Careers

Encounters with employers & employees

Experience of workplaces

Encounters with further and higher education

Personal guidance

 

We are continually looking for ways to develop our CEIAG provision across the school making adaptations to address the needs of every pupil. These are the more recent adaptations and experiences we have introduced for our recent academic years.

2020-2021 Academic year

Throughout the periods of remote learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic adaptations were made to provide career guidance through virtual talks and online resources. In addition, responding to the needs of the current Year 11 pupils a bespoke week of experiences was developed in their final week of school which focused on their wellbeing and their future. Colleges and sixth form schools led lessons ‘virtually’ in subjects not taught in schools, such as Classics, Psychology, Sociology and Criminology, as well as taking part in teambuilding activities, mental health talks and life skills.

 

The programme is below:     

 

 

2021-2022 Academic year

The Year 10 career lessons provide several opportunities for pupils to engage with a range of different education providers including those offering vocational courses, T-Levels and apprenticeships. As a consequence of periods of remote learning and essential restrictions to external visitors, we recognised that pupils undertaking the Year 10 career lessons in the 2020-21 academic year had a reduced opportunity to engage with a variety of Post-16 education providers. In response we organised a Careers Fair for these pupils, now Year 11, to provide them with an opportunity to engage with and seek advice from a range of education providers, apprenticeship providers and employers. In attendance at the Careers Fair were over 30 professionals with representatives from Blackburn College, Cardinal Newman, Myerscough College, Preston College, Runshaw College, The Sixth Form Bolton, Westholme Sixth Form, Wigan and Leigh College, NEMA Ltd, Training 2000, Edgehill University, armed forces, aviation, Department for Work and Pensions, law, NHS, NWAS, police and social work. Parents and carers were invited to attend the fair afterschool in order to engage in discussions with their sons/daughters.

For the 2021-22 academic year we redesigned the career focused Christian Value Enrichment days for July 2022. In addition to the Runshaw Sample Day, pupils were provided with a further Post-16 sampling opportunity at Myerscough College where they experienced Animal Studies, Equine Studies, Motorsport and Sport courses on offer for Post-16. Pupils also received a talk on the higher education courses available at Myerscough College and were provided aspirational insights into where these higher education opportunities could lead them in the future. In addition, a bespoke work experience day was organised for all pupils in the year group. In response to feedback collated on current pupil career interests the year group were split into small groups. Workplace visits were organised for the individual groups with professionals and employers across Chorley at which pupils were given career advice and guidance about the individual fields, personal guidance from professionals about their careers to date and workplace and environment tours. Businesses involved across the two days included Asda, Astley Hall exhibition, Calico Lounge, C+K Jewellers, Chic Happens, Chocobella, Chorley Council, Chorley Group, Chorley Library, Coast Hairdressers, Derian House, Doodles, Highgrove House, Hillcrest, Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire Fire and Rescue, Malcolm’s Musicland, Marshall’s Florist, McDonalds, Nationwide, New Look, NIS Engineering, Peter Gilkes, Specsavers, Sports Direct, Tesco, TSB, TUI and Vision Express. In addition to this workplace experiences pupils received talks at school from representatives of BAE Engineering, NHS and business owners and lessons that explored pupil interests, resilience and the Unifrog careers platform.  

2022-2023 Academic year

For the 2022-2023 academic year we re-introduced formal work experience for Year 10 pupils following a gap in doing so for roughly 15 academic years. Year 10 pupils were tasked with finding their own work experience placement to take place for one week in July 2023. Lessons and assemblies were provided to guide pupils on how to navigate the world of work and to make formal contact with employers. We recognised that following the Covid-19 pandemic pupils needed to develop communication skills with the public and this presented an ideal opportunity to support pupils to develop the soft skills. The programme aimed to nurture enquiry, communication, research, professional writing, application writing and professional conduct skills that are required in all pathways. Pupils successfully completed their placements across a range of industries including Retail, Education, Health and social care, Agriculture, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Business admin and support, Public admin and defence, Construction, Manufacturing, Utilities, and Accommodation and food. Pupils mainly attained opportunities in the local area, however, some travelled as far as Ireland, Wales and Luxembourg to complete their placements.

In compliance with Provider Access Legislation, pupils in Year 8 and Year 9 received assemblies and lessons from Runshaw College and Training 2000 that focused on T-Levels and apprenticeships. A careers fair was again organised for Year 11 pupils which included colleges, sixth forms, a range of apprenticeship providers, universities, and employers. Year 10 pupils were invited to an additional careers fair in the spring term organised by Chorley Council which introduced pupils to employers from the local area.

2023-2024 Academic year

In the forthcoming academic year, we will continue to respond to the emerging needs and interests of our pupils including looking for new opportunities for Year 8 pupils to engage with alumni of the school who are current apprentices. After a success re-introduction of work experience in the last academic year we will also repeat the programme for our new Year 10 pupils to complete a week of work experience in July 2024.

Careers summary at St Michael’s and careers across departments

Contact Details

If you have any questions about Careers please contact:

Miss Emma Curtis - Leader in Learning for Careers, Enterprise and Vocational Education. 

ecurtis@saint-michaels.lancs.sch.uk 

 

Parent/Carer Resources 

We have put a link to some websites/documents below which will allow you to understand different opportunities available to our pupils. 

 

Links to local Colleges & Training Providers

Don’t forget that College Open Events are one of the best ways to get up to date and accurate information on specific courses and entry requirements which can change year on year. Please look on our Careers Moodle page and have a look at some of the virtual tours!

 

The links below are useful for finding information:

 

Colleges:

 

 

Apprenticeships: 

 

Local Apprenticeship Employers: