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Careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG)

CEIAG as a leadership issue

CEIAG has four essential and interlinked principles:

• careers education – a planned programme in the curriculum that gives students the knowledge and skills for planning and managing their careers
• careers information – including learning options, skills, occupations, labour market information and progression routes
• careers advice and guidance – personalised help from specialist advisers to identify long-term goals and plan steps to attain them. These advisers are to be appropriately qualified and receive ongoing CPD
• work-related learning – experiences within and outside of the curriculum that help students learn about economic well being, careers and enterprise

National College research into the area of CEIAG in schools reveals the significance of developing support systems alongside curriculum change to ensure that young people can make informed choices about pathways to success. It is evident that young people experience high quality and impartial CEIAG when it is embedded in the practice of the school and is led effectively and with commitment from the very top. This can contribute to successful outcomes in terms of achievement, commitment and personal development and well being and our final reports and case studies, available below, reinforce this thesis. From our research it is strongly suggested that schools should adopt a 'whole school' approach to careers-related IAG for young people. This requires a commitment from the whole school workforce to raising the quality of CEIAG and to ensuring that young people are able to make well-informed, realistic decisions about their future.

Supporting information

“Careers guidance makes a difference. It’s in the engine room of social mobility; a vital part of the machinery of social justice. Good advice doesn’t just transform lives. It transforms our society by challenging the pre-conceived ideas about what each of us seeks and what all of us can achieve.”
-John Hayes, Minister of State, Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning

Recent educational reforms offer more choice and progression opportunities to young people. To make informed decisions about these opportunities, students require up-to-date, impartial and accurate IAG.

All students have a statutory entitlement to impartial CEIAG, including access to careers services and access to a wide range of up-to-date reference materials. It is important that those who teach and support learners understand and can explain progression routes to students and can talk about the choices students will make at critical transition points. CEIAG should be personalised, impartial and high quality.

The government has proposed changes to the statutory duties to careers education and guidance in England.

• Review of vocational education, Wolf report, March 2011
• New all-age careers service, speech by John Hayes, November 2010
• Securing a sustainable future for higher education - an independent review of higher education funding and student finance, Browne report, October 2010
  England has an internationally respected system of higher education that produces major benefits for individuals and the country. Sustaining future economic growth and social mobility in an increasingly competitive global knowledge economy will require increased investment in higher education. Other countries are already broadening andstrengthening their higher education systems and we need to rise to this challenge.
• Read the Education Bill, published 26 January 2011

Resources

College research:

• Effective leadership of CEIAG - a summary report and case studies, March 2011, describe different curriculum models; the integration of CEIAG across the curriculum is schools’ preferred approach, with a strong emphasis on partnership working. Its leadership and management follow a distributed model with staff operating at a range of levels to secure its development and implementation.
• Provision for CEIAG in the independent sector, Charles Gilbank, National College, March 2011
  A summary of reports that look at the provision for CEIAG in three independent schools in England.
• Leadership of employer engagement, Ron Newey, National College, March 2011
  This report brings together the findings on effective practice from visits to nine schools across the regions following recommendations from the education and employers task force.
• Ofsted in the context of CEIAG - Elaine Buchanan, deputy head and National College CEIAG associate, summarises her findings into what defines the difference between good and outstanding teaching in the development of independent student learners. Elaine also highlights what schools need to do to improve further. This follows her schooll’s Ofsted visit in November 2010.
• Impartial careers education: principles into practice - booklet illustrating the new principles for careers education.
• Impartial careers education: effective leadership of information, advice and guidance - report summarising aspects of good practice across the secondary schools involved in our research to identify effective leadership approaches to the delivery of IAG.
• Equality, self-belief and choice: impartial careers education: implementing Principle 5 - booklet identifying leadership best practice from 10 schools actively promoting equal opportunities and challenging stereotyping in line with Principle 5 of the statutory guidance for impartial careers education.
• Curriculum partnership working: sustainability, collaboration, peer learning and foundation learning. These resources are particularly useful within the national context of schools supporting schools and identify ways in which schools, colleges, local authorities, employers and higher education institutions can work together successfully.

Partner resources:

• The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has commissioned a range of resources to assist teachers in providing career-related IAG. These materials will support teachers within formal lessons and outside the curriculum.
• The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) offer video case studies to help with providing career, work related learning and enterprise for students in key stage 4 and post-16.
• Diagnostic tool for school leaders - tool to help you identify strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement in current arrangements. The examples under each heading illustrate best practice.
• Audit tool for careers co-ordinators - materials to help you review your programme of careers education against the six principles of impartial careers education set out in the statutory guidance (October 2009); identify development priorities to share with senior leaders; and consider how senior leaders could address the development priorities identified.
• Cegnet - the website of the careers education and IAG support programme. All resource material available to download.

Further information

Please email iag@nationalcollege.org.uk if you have any queries regarding our work in this area, or if you would like to discuss our research with those schools or College associates involved.