Case Study:
Career Planning and Coaching for Students and Young People
With an emerging need to prioritise post-16 technical skills and prepare young people for employment opportunities in the local economy, Grassroots Consulting designed and delivered a 2-year Post-16 Careers Programme to support over 10,000 local students.
Caroline’s personal approach has been much appreciated as we have gained high quality resources to help our aspiration of providing career insights and skills for our students. She has aided our CPD whilst also providing student friendly sessions on employer recruitment processes. Caroline’s approach is very much appreciated – highly supported, professional and highly motivated in her work – thank you for everything you have done Caroline!
The Challenge: Deliver comprehensive careers advice to promote technical and vocational study
Young people have been disproportionately affected by the social, educational and economic impacts of Covid-19 over the past three academic years. Consequently, there is a need for digitally accessible solutions to engage with young people and provide access to impartial, comprehensive CEIAG, with a particular focus on disadvantaged groups including those with SEND needs, care leavers and those at risk of becoming NEET.
Due to insufficient LMI and access to ‘physical’ encounters with employers during this period, Stockport Council identified a need to improve young people’s awareness of local employment opportunities, emerging sectors and areas of economic growth. As alternatives to ‘traditional’ academic routes are under-represented in secondary school provision, there was a desire to develop understanding of all post-16 education pathways, promoting technical and vocational qualifications and preparing young people for the employment opportunities in the local economy.
The Solution:
Working in partnership with 27 local secondary schools, colleges and training providers, Grassroots Consulting designed and delivered a Post-16 Careers Programme to engage with 10,000 Year 10-13 students. This included a suite of targeted CEIAG Teacher Resources (lesson plans, student planning tools, games and classroom activities), employer-led Bitesize Videos and Career Guides, and a Digital Prospectus promoting a diverse range of academic and employment pathways available at 16+ and 18+.
As part of the programme, Grassroots delivered a dedicated ‘Post-16 Careers Week’ event, incorporating 6 hours of pre-recorded and live-hosted content, together with an information evening attended by over 500 parents and carers. The event was hosted on a dedicated web platform with coordinated marketing strategy to increase direct engagement with students via social media.
We also provided LMI-update training to local CEIAG professionals to improve delivery of careers content relevant to local employment needs and created a networking forum for secondary school and college careers advisors as a legacy for future collaboration and best practice.
As part of our social values commitment, the team at Grassroots also worked on a one-to-one basis with the careers teams at many local secondary schools and colleges to provide CV Workshops, practice Interview Sessions, Webinars on Finding Part-time Employment and Online Events for parents as part of National Apprenticeships Week and National Careers Week.