We aim to prepare our students to go on to further or higher education or skilled employment and enable them to make a significant contribution to society.

Whilst qualifications remain very important, we recognise that employability or work-readiness is becoming more and more important to potential employers looking to fill vacancies. We do everything we can to ensure Waddesdon students develop these skills and attributes in order to get ahead in the workplace.

Using the Gatsby Benchmarks as framework for high-quality careers education, and within the scope of an effective CIAEG programme, the school seeks to provide the following entitlements and support for its students:

• Individual and impartial guidance from well informed staff who are supported by professionally qualified careers advisers, including information on apprenticeships, as well as ensuring that students understand how they will be able to apply the skills and knowledge gained in school to the world of work
• Provision of personal guidance for career plans, in consultation with professional advisers, appropriate to students’ interests and potential, indicating steps to be taken, and updated at key transition points. This will ensure the guidance addresses the needs of each student
• Provision of information on a full range of learning opportunities available to students, including both academic and vocational routes, as well as ensuring they have encounters with further and higher education
• Opportunities, via meaningful encounters with employers and experiences of workplaces, to encounter a range of industries and occupations and understand the changes that are taking place in a modern technological society. Some of these will be with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) employers
• Provision of access to a stable, high quality careers programme appropriate to students of different ages and abilities. Students are given opportunities to acquire the necessary skills to research, analyse and interpret information within a planned programme of careers, integral to the curriculum
• Curriculum learning linked to careers
• Supporting opportunities for Sixth Form students to gain experiences of workplaces
• Careers provision which aims to increase motivation, aspiration and achievement amongst all students
• Students and parents have access to information about career paths and the labour market to inform decisions on study options.

Careers education programme:

This is a structured careers education guidance programme operating throughout Years 7-13, that is geared to the needs of students and is clearly understood by students, parents and teachers. The aims of this programme are to:

• Assist our young people to make informed decisions about their future
• Help our students become aware of their strengths, weaknesses and personal qualities
• Increase awareness of the demands of work and how this is organised
• Foster attitudes of self-reliance, initiative, reliability and confidence in order for students to cope with the changes that occur at various stages in their lives
• Ensure all students are aware of the value of qualifications, and the opportunities available to them in employment, further/higher education and training.

The programme is delivered through PSHE lessons, form time, assemblies, activity sessions and discrete timetabled lessons across Years 7-13.

Essential to the development of careers education and guidance is a close liaison with external careers support, whose advisers assist and support in the annual monitoring and evaluation of CIAEG.

Students can access information about careers via –

• a careers education programme (see above)
• opportunities for students and their parents, throughout Years 7-13, to consult teachers and careers advisers about career plans and option choices
• opportunities to access external careers support and advice
• careers seminars and school assemblies
• opportunities to work with local business mentors, meet potential employers and advisers and listen to external career-related speakers
• opportunities to encourage students at key stages to access work experience/work shadowing opportunities
• an annual careers fair, which includes information from universities, gap year providers, the Armed Forces, STEM, Apprenticeship Service, local and specialist colleges and local businesses
• opportunities to visit open days
• school trips linked to related careers
• guidance on how to write effective curriculum vitae and personal statements, interview training and mock interviews
• access to a careers library with relevant publications and on-line software

Parents can access information about the careers programme via –

• parent consultation evenings
• school’s Careers Leader
• school information events e.g options meetings, Sixth Form Open Evening
• regular correspondence from the school
• careers fair event
• website information and useful links
• access to careers library.

Employers can access information about the careers programme via –

• school website
• school’s Careers Leader
• CIAEG External Provider Contract

Measuring the impact of the careers programme on students

As a school, we measure the impact of our CIAEG programme through student destinations, student feedback, including individual and group discussions, subject monitoring and teacher evaluation, parent questionnaires, and consultation with external CIAEG providers.