Education Minister visits North East as region leads careers education pilot

The Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Minister of State at the Department for Education, visited Churchill Community College in North Tyneside on Monday 26 September to see how our Good Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot, in partnership with the North East LEP, is helping young people in the region make better and more informed decisions about their future careers.

Churchill Community College in Wallsend, North Tyneside, is one of 16 schools and colleges in the North East LEP area currently piloting the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks. The North East LEP region is the first in the country to test the Benchmarks.

During his visit to Churchill Community College, the Minister met with staff, students and local businesses to hear first-hand how the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks are improving careers education in the North East.

Ryan Gibson, National Facilitator for the Career Benchmarks Pilot at the North East LEP, said:

“The programme has been transformational in terms of improving students’ access to careers education and helping them develop the skills employers need. The initiatives the North East LEP has developed as part of the Career Guidance Benchmarks pilot have improved collaboration between the business community and the education sector, as well as provide teaching staff with workplace training and personal development opportunities to better equip them with the knowledge and skills to provide effective careers advice to students.”

Following on from the early success of the Career Benchmarks Pilot, Gatsby has partnered with The Careers and Enterprise Company to create Compass, a school self-evaluation tool. Compass helps schools gain a greater understanding of how their provision of career education and guidance compares to the model of good practice set out in the Gatsby’s Good Career Guidance Benchmarks.

The tool can be accessed by following this link: www.compass-careers.org.uk

Skills and Apprenticeships Minister Robert Halfon said: “Good careers advice is vital in helping young people make informed decisions and climb the ladder of opportunity to fulfilling jobs.”

Sir John Holman, who developed the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks after being commissioned by Gatsby to map out what good career guidance should look like in the UK said:

“The North East has a very cohesive schooling community, with excellent networks, and is therefore an excellent region in which to run the pilot.

“I have been delighted with the results to date. The positive impact has been demonstrated early on and the passion of professionals in the North East has been key to the pilot’s success.”