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During the lockdown period, Greenwood Academies Trust – a Multi-academy Trust – carried out an online careers week for all primary aged children across the trust. The week included 10 interactive talks from employers and employees and a Flipgridchallenge. The week was supported by Primary Futures and the trust’s employer partners.

As well as a creative Covid-19 lockdown solution, the purpose of the week was to create interest and excitement in a variety of careers using props, uniform and visuals. The week involved two-way interaction between the pupils and participants, which is a key element of making an online employer engagement meaningful.

Career-related learning is embedded in all the schools within the academy trust and Greenwood are proud to have appointed teaching staff as Careers Leaders in all their primary schools – something only currently required at secondary level.

“The children both in school and at home have loved the sessions…Seeing how inspired the children were from them all and the buzz about school of children talking about what they wanted to be and how some had changed because of the talks” (Teacher)

The CITE training materials consist of three training sessions and associated ‘gap’ tasks.  Each training session lasts about 1.5 hours to allow for discussion.  The time required for each gap task will vary.  After each gap task, participants will complete a reflective evaluation writing exercise.

The CITE training materials are best used as part of an ongoing training or CPD programme.  You can access some of the materials via this platform. As a result of building careers into CITE, participants demonstrated confidence in using the resources that support integration of careers-related learning in the curriculum. Participants’ reflections demonstrated that they also felt more confident and prepared to challenge stereotypes in careers related learning, suggesting adaptations to the tools, and new ideas.

A teacher who attended the CPD said:

“We want as a school to raise aspirations and expose children to different careers and a barrier has been how to do this without a budget, but the resources shown today will help this.”

Pupils worked with a range of employers from the Health and Social care sector to discuss the world of work now and to identify what “2030 careers” might look like. Pupils had the opportunity to engage with employers and undertake activities which inspired them.

We explored how differently this sector looked 10 years ago in comparison to now and how it will change again over the next decade.  Development of the 8 essential skills were a key focus in relation to this sector now and in the future. Parents, pupils and employers collaborated on a fact-finding mission about the different roles and used their presenting skills to relay what they had learnt to the group.  

It is important to show children the widest possible range of career opportunities available to them in any one sector. This project included paramedics, nursery managers, Health and Wellbeing university lecturers, occupational therapists, social workers and ward nurses. Parents were also invited to participate so they could learn about the range of options for a career in this sector.