Did you know that by the age of five and six, children begin to form career-limiting perceptions based on factors such as their gender and background?
Career related learning in a primary setting is about exploring how to help children to broaden their horizons and develop their skills and to enable them, and their families, to understand the future opportunities that are available and how they can reach their potential. Through its Primary Network, the North East Combined Authority is supporting primary schools in our region to create meaningful careers related learning that will raise aspirations, challenge stereotypes and help children connect the classroom to the world around them. This offer is entirely free to all schools in the North East.
By joining the Primary Network your school will benefit from one-to-one support to undertake a careers education self-assessment audit and to develop a careers action plan.
In addition to individual support, schools also have access to:
- Regular network meetings (both local and regional) to help develop effective communities of practice
- CPD and training opportunities
- Access to the North East Ambition website, containing resources, case studies and links to careers-related learning providers.
To join the Primary Network, email: goodcareers@northeast-ca.gov.uk
Primary benchmark toolkits
A stable careers programme
Every school has an embedded programme of careers and personal development that seeks to raise aspirations and is age appropriate. This programme shows progression through the key stages and is known and understood by pupils, parents/carers, teachers, governors and other key stakeholders.
Learning from career and labour market information
Every pupil, and their parents/carers, should have access to basic labour market information to help expand their awareness of future possibilities and opportunities.
Addressing the needs of each pupil
Pupils will have different needs and so opportunities for support should be tailored to the requirements of each pupil. A school’s careers and personal development programme should embed equality and diversity throughout and actively challenge stereotypical thinking.
Linking curriculum learning to careers
All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers and future learning possibilities. The importance of literacy, numeracy and digital awareness should be emphasised and pupils should have the chance to explore STEM related opportunities and understand the skills they will need for the future.
Encounters with employers and employees
Every pupil should have the opportunity to have meaningful and age appropriate encounters with a range of different employers and understand the importance of skills in the workplace. This can be through a range of different activities including visiting speakers and/or enterprise schemes.
Experiences of workplaces
Every pupil should have the opportunity to experience a variety of workplaces. These experiences of the world of work could be either direct or indirect and might include role plays, challenge days or visits to local employers.
Encounters with further and higher education
All pupils should understand the full range of learning opportunities that will be available to them. This includes both academic and vocational/technical routes and learning in schools, sixth forms, colleges, training providers, universities and in the workplace.
Personal guidance
Every pupil should have the opportunity to have ‘careers conversations’. Their aspirations and personal development progress should be recorded and shared with parents/carers, as well as the transition leaders of the next place of education.
Tools & Resources
Audit Tool
Our audit tool gives Careers Leaders the opportunity to analyse your school’s strengths and weaknesses with regards to your whole school careers provision.
Resources
Explore trusted, high quality resources from a variety of sources to support your planning and progress towards delivering the benchmarks.
Primary Pilot findings
From 2019 to 2021, The North East Ambition Primary Pilot explored how to sow the seeds of ambition from an early age by supporting schools to use an adapted set of the Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks (aligned to those used within secondary schools and further education) as a framework to strategically develop an age-appropriate career and personal development programme. The Primary Pilot aimed to enable the schools to help broaden pupils’ horizons, raise their aspirations, and support them to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding to be successful in the next stage of their education and beyond, regardless of their starting point.
Find out more about the findings of the pilot.
Year 1 Report
Our Year 1 Report highlights what’s been achieved so far and how it’s helping primary-age children to learn about the full range of possibilities open to them in the future.
Year 2 Report
Our Year 2 report highlights what’s been achieved so far, and how it’s helping primary-age children learn about the wide-ranging possibilities open to them in future.