Schools and colleges in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire learned how to ‘get ahead of the game’ and improve career opportunities for young people, at a careers strategy event.
How to get ahead of the game: The Careers Strategy and the D2N2 Approach eventbrought together 80 senior education figures including headteachers, careers leaders and Enterprise Advisers; to learn how to improve the career opportunities of young people in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. It was held yesterday afternoon (April 17) at the Riverside Centre in Derby.
The event focused on national standards which show how effective careers guidance is in schools and examples of how national benchmarks – known as the Gatsby benchmarks – are already being put into practice across the D2N2 area.
The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership skills team hosted the event. The D2N2 LEP is a private-sector-led partnership of businesses, local authorities, skills and training providers and community and voluntary organisations which promotes jobs, higher skills, business start-ups and economic growth across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. D2N2’s mission is to boost its areas economy, including raising skill levels and employability across its area.
As part of its aim, D2N2 has been working with the Government-backed Careers & Enterprise Company. This has helped to create the Enterprise Adviser Network across the D2N2 area. Enterprise Advisers are senior business leaders who give up their time voluntarily to work with schools. This is to improve opportunities open to young people and help them get into good quality, long term sustainable employment with the skills needed by businesses.
The eight Gatsby benchmarks are:
- A stable careers programme.
- Learning from career and labour market information.
- Addressing the needs of each pupil.
- Linking curriculum learning to careers.
- Encounters with employers and employees.
- Experiences of workplaces.
- Encounters with further and higher education.
- Personal guidance.
Peter Richardson, Chair of the D2N2 LEP, (pictured above, opening yesterday’s event) highlighted the impact of the D2N2 Enterprise Adviser Network to date; and how the D2N2 area can use the Government’s national Careers Strategy and the Gatsby Benchmarks to increase the opportunities and career ambitions of young people, across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
A series of workshops were also held as part of the event. These gave examples of where Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire schools are working with the D2N2 LEP, how the Gatsby Benchmarks are already being delivered, and the benefit to students as a result. These examples will also feature in a series of short videos, due to be completed in the next couple of months.
Peter Richardson, Chair of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Careers guidance is vital to young people in our area. I am glad that the work already done by some schools across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire was brought into the spotlight. I hope that these great examples will be the first of many.
“With sound advice, informed by and linked to the needs of our areas businesses, we can provide the correct level of guidance to get the workforce of the next generation into long-term, sustainable employment.”
DANCOP – the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Collaborative Outreach Programme – funded yesterday’s event. DANCOP is a network of D2N2 area universities and colleges, which aims to provide targeted higher education outreach programmes to secondary schools and colleges; and which supports the Gatsby Benchmark relating to ‘encounters with further and higher education’.
For more information on the D2N2 LEP’s work with schools, visit website www.d2n2schools.co.uk
Further information about the Careers & Enterprise Company can be found on its website at www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/
For more information on DANCOP, visit website www.teamdancop.co.uk/
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