OK – so it looks like we’ve got £20 million to spend on careers provision in England. It is not much, but it is better than nothing. So what could we usefully spend it on. Has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks to @secondaryceiag for being the first to spot this.
Today was a good news day in CEIAG world. At the Autumn Statement to the House of Commons, George Osborne pulled a Careers rabbit out of the hat and promised a £20 million cash injection into Careers advice for young people.
added to the recent contract changes to the National Careers Service and the funding equivalence involved (5% of about £109.5m)
it is great to see this vital work with young people getting cash backing. It was certainly welcomed by the National Careers Council
NCC chairwoman Deirdre Hughes said: “It is great to see the government recognising that more needs to be…
View original post 210 more words
Adventures in Career Development 
Hi Tristan,
I’ve got an idea how to spend some money on Careers Guidance.
I believe that young people would benefit greatly from introduction to an idea called
‘conscious working’. I found it in a book (so many great ideas are found there!), and on
reflection, I think it really would work in the career education context.
Briefly, the idea is about being aware of one’s objectives on a daily basis. It encourages a gentle, non-threatening state of mind in which any of our daily tasks,
challenges or looming examinations are briefly put aside in order to focus on the
needs of the individual, and how performing the daily tasks support this. It is momentary, but with repetition, perhaps twice or three times per day, it can begin to
help individuals articulate their needs. This, I think, would be an excellent preparatory technique for any subsequent guidance intervention.
I have trained at Nottingham Trent for the QCG/ Post Grad Diploma in Careers Guidance and Education.The biggest barriers which I saw to effective provision are the pressure on classroom time, and the struggle of young people to articulate their needs during a guidance interview. These are generalised observations, not intended to be true of every circumstance, but I felt that these stood out from my experiences.
The conscious working technique, if learnt early, would be able to circumvent these barriers by happening in the student’s own time, and developing an ‘inner voice’ with
which to practice that essential dialogue within a more structured interview.
You may not agree, but I would very much like to have any feedback on this idea that you are able to offer.
Best wishes,
Jo Lawrance
01332 864563
Many apologies, Tristram. I should have got your name right first time.
It’s late and I’m tired!
Jo Lawrance.
No problem. Have you got a link to this conscious working thing?
Match funding. Make schools take CEIAG seriously but ring-fencing a bit of their own existing budgets (like Pupil Premium) and then fund from this new money to double it.