Stoke on Trent Careers and Enterprise Award

CAREERS AWARD

At the end of the 2018 -2019 academic year, Gladstone was invited to take part in a pilot scheme with the task of raising aspirations and encouraging careers and employability in primary schools.

As part of the pilot, we were able to access funding to take part in visits, and visitors   coming into school to give children a range of experiences. The project was led by Mr Bloor.

We had to analyse existing opportunities where children are exposed to different work places, careers and look to where we could offer more and make these links more explicit.

During the 2019-20 Academic year, we planned many activities, mainly in the Spring and Summer term. We did manage to have lots of going on in National Careers Week. We had a whole school assembly with various visitors from different industries explaining their jobs and the pathway they took to get there.

We managed to use our existing trips and visitors to make links with careers and employers, giving pupils a greater understanding of different jobs that are available in our local area and beyond.

Year 5 and 6 were involved in a ‘Careers – STEM’ day, where they rotated around 4 different industries, including robotics, electronics, JCB and team cohesion, with the company ‘Learn by Design’ leading the day.

We were able to set up links with Balfour Beatty and JCB. Year 5 had   visits from different employees from Balfour Beatty, with activities such as ‘Guess the job’. We were planning to have JCB workers in to deliver Design and Technology sessions, but these were planned for the Summer Term.

Due to Covid 19, we were not able to complete all the activities that we had planned, such as a visit to work places and more experiences for the children to be involved in.

Throughout the year, we were collecting evidence to achieve the Quality in Careers Standard award which we were successfully awarded.

This is a quote from Kelly Meir, who is the Careers Operational Support Officer for Stoke-on-Trent. She was the point of contact with Mr Bloor throughout the pilot scheme and continues to offer support.

“I think this shows just how well you have worked on the project and the changes you could evidence due to the work you have done.  Most  importantly the project has always been about motivating, engaging and supporting our children of the City to raise their aspirations and to give them confidence in their skills and interests.  Keep promoting what you are doing –      you have achieved a great deal.”