Welcome to Careers Information and Guidance (CIAG) at Activate Independent Specialist College.
The designated Careers Leader is Pat Johnson who is supported by a team of Job Coaches.
Our aim
Is to support young people to choose subjects and options that suit their aspirations, abilities and individual needs. The Careers Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) programme, is robust, flexible and helps to avoid disengagement. Placing college learning into a wider and more relevant context and helping to raise student aspirations.
At Activate we use a person-centred approach to support students. All students have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), the aim is to equip students with life skills to support their independence and where appropriate qualifications, to enable them to make a successful transition into adulthood and achieve their outcomes.
What does our CIAG provision look like?
Careers Programme
Activate College believes that every young person needs high quality career guidance to make informed decisions about their future. The College offers a bespoke person-centred Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG) delivery, with the careers programme embedded throughout the curriculum. Students have access to and benefit from an individualised career related pathway, which enhances both learning and work-related experiences, supported by job coaches from the Career Advice and Transition Team (CAT). underpinned by Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) interviews and a yearly Annual Review.
Whilst on programme students develop their life and independent work skills and engage in a number of initiatives including work experience placements, group work, career building sessions, social community activities, enterprise projects and participation in the annual interactive careers week held in March each year.
The careers programme incorporates the national framework for implementing IAG in England and meets the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks, which are used as part of monitoring, review and evaluation process: –
- A stable career programme
- Learning from careers and labour market information
- Addressing the needs of each student
- Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Encounters with employers and employees
- Experiences of workplaces
- Encounters with further and higher education
- Personal Guidance
Travel Training
Students have access to Travel Training, which consists of
- Using public transport
- Road safety skills
- Safer pedestrian skills
Transition
Activate is committed to providing a transition process which enables all students to reach their full potential through meaningful learning pathways that raise aspirations and enhance progress and the acquisition of life skills.
All transitioning students are supported by the most appropriate staff during preparation or transitional visits. To support a smooth transition the College has a dedicated Transition Officer and Transition Job Coach who monitor and provide effective and consistent transitional support.
Programme Evaluation and Impact
- We work alongside our local Liverpool City Region (LCR) Enterprise co-ordinator, Julie Jones to evaluate the CIAG programme each term using the Compass evaluation tool (developed and facilitated by the Careers Enterprise Company)
- The Careers Lead Pat Johnson is part of the Senior Leadership team and regularly updates the Leadership team and Board of Trustees as to the effectiveness of the programme
- The quality of our practice is also assessed strategically through the ‘Quality in Careers’ standard award, professional membership of the Career Development Institute
- We are always striving to improve our provision and services and work closely with students, parents, guardians and employers to evaluate the effectiveness of the service, which we do through on-going feedback platforms such as:-
- Learner Voice
- New Parent cohort
- Leaver cohorts
- Activate Parent Enterprise
- Employer Feedback
- Destination data – Destination follow up calls. Leavers are contacted 3 months after completing their course, which is succeeded by a biannual follow up for a 3 year period.
By providing a clear pathway to Adulthood through a culmination of impartial careers advice and guidance, a robust careers programme, work skills and work experience placements, ensures that EHCP outcomes are achieved and prepares students for the next stages of their lives.
An overview for our planned career’s programme for the 2024/25 academic year can be found here