Our Impact 2024: Careers support across the education sector

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Our Education Business Services team delivers our School and College Careers Service.

We work in mainstream schools, specialist schools, and alternative provision, with the same aim – to provide tailored services that meet the individual needs and aspirations of students.

We know that to make an informed decision, young people need to understand the range of career paths and industries open to them. Across the country, our advisers have continued to build new and important links with employers to make this happen.

All of our work aligns with the Gatsby Benchmarks, the framework for excellence in school-based Careers provision in England. We also offer CPD sessions, mentorship and consultation for the education sector, and are accredited to deliver the Quality in Careers Standard.

A work experience visit at Career Connect’s Head Office

Over the past year we have:

• Expanded our reach to 214 schools (a 16% increase from 2022/23), providing careers services to 47,164 young people across the country. This has included supporting more than 4,000 young people via employer events and careers fairs, and securing work experience placements for 855 young people.

• Continued our successful partnership with Macintyre Academies, delivering the Inspirational Futures programme. Delivered in three specialist Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) schools in Warwickshire, the programme aims to increase employer engagement and employability skills for the students across the academy trust. We provided specialist employability sessions from Key Stage 3 onwards, including opportunities to engage with employers. In 2023/24 we provided targeted employability sessions to 85 young people and created more than 700 employer links. We arranged five careers and transition fairs and five events to share information with parents.

• Continued our Aspirations programme in Knowsley, working with nine secondary and ten primary schools to provide an inspirational programme that supports young people to develop an understanding of university life and experience. This includes specialist careers development activities that support young people to consider university as a realistic and achievable pathway. It also involves site visits to three local university campuses. In 2023/24, 740 young people took part in the programme, with more than 80% of these reporting that participating had improved their knowledge of Higher Education.

Challenging Stereotypes workshop