The UK Career Development Awards (UKCDA) shortlist is out – and Career Connect is shortlisted in the prestigious Careers Provider of the Year category.
The category recognises “outstanding organisations providing career development services” and their “commitment to professionalism, continuous development of their team, and adherence to the Code of Ethics to offer clients high quality, impartial and expert careers support.” Finalists must also be able to evidence their impact on clients and support for the professionalism of staff.
Our Impact
Our entry demonstrated our significant impact across the areas in which we specialise – young people, justice services, schools and colleges and training and development, plus our contribution to research in the sector. In 2023/4 we delivered an additional social value of £8million and came into contact with 97,719 people.
Supporting The Justice Sector
Our outstanding work in the Justice Sector included our completion of the CFO 3 programme, enrolling more than 19,000 participants, and winning awards for collaboration such as for the Discovery Wing programme. Meanwhile, in our contract with Lancashire and Cumbria prisons, we achieved participant employment rates almost 1.7 times the national average within six weeks post-release.
Achieving Greater Outcomes for Young People
We also demonstrated our innovative partnership working to achieve greater outcomes for young people, such as the Turnaround Project with Hugh Baird College, Discover Your Future with The Lowry and the Wythenshawe Pathways project with Manchester City Council.
We emphasised the strong relationships our Schools and Colleges team build with employers to the benefit of pupils, including the What Next? Skills Show, and Women in Business workshops. We showed how we are promoting excellence through offering the Quality in Careers mark at primary and secondary levels, and innovation through our digital careers platform Get Connected Plus.
We also demonstrated the impact of our in-house Careers Academy, delivering and funding training up to Level 6, with 19% of our delivery staff actively undertaking a certification delivered by us (as of January 2025).
Delivering Local and National Research
We showed how we are undertaking national and local research, designed to benefit our participants, the careers sector as a whole and our staff. This includes our national consultation, best practice workshops for NEET commissioners and our staff Research Practitioner Research Programme.
Our CEO Sheila Clark said: “I’m incredibly proud of each of our teams, and their dedication and professionalism, which in the last year has changed the lives of tens of thousands of people across the country.
“We are on the shortlist at these awards thanks to our teams’ passion for careers, and their commitment to innovation, collaboration, equity, and being a voice for others.
“This excellent news comes not long after we have launched our 2025-2028 strategy. It has certainly made me reflect again on how far we have come, as well as how far we want to go over the next few years. I am looking forward with excitement to the award announcement in June, but even more so to the next three years as we continue to build, together, on our strong foundations.”
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 17th June at the CDI’s Carnival of Careers at the Royal National Hotel, London.
