Careers
One of our Trust's key priorities is to raise the aspirations of our pupils and the communities we serve.
Careers Education at Co-op Academy Portland
- Our Careers Lead is Mrs Debbie Smith
- We hold the Quality in Careers Standard - awarded in September 2024
How we deliver Careers Education | Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG)
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At Co-op Academy Portland, our plans for the development of Career Related Learning is to provide wide and varied opportunities to enable our pupils to broaden their horizons, to meet new people and, in turn, to raise their aspirations.
At Portland, we want our children to be able to make purposeful and deliberate links between their learning experiences, visiting speakers, seeing a range of workplaces and their own future. Through CRL we aim to promote equality of opportunity, give exposure to the world of work, celebrate diversity and give our children an insight into the world of Science Technology Education Maths - as well as look at our locality and the jobs within it, for example, ship repair at Cammell Lairds.
In June 2024 we held our first Portland World Of Work Week - an entire week of planned learning activities and opportunities. We organised many visitors from a wide range of careers and between April and July, our visitors came from the RAF, NHS, Ministry of Justice, The Aviation Industry, filmmakers and a female scientist from The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. We even won the Enterprise Initiative for all the academies within the Trust - winning prizes totalling £400 in book vouchers.
In September 2024, we were assessed and awarded the Quality in Careers standard. This award will last until September 2027.
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Early Years
Activity:
Job roles and gender - this activity gives pupils their first experience of jobs in a fun and experiential way by using role play. The aim is to have fun while showing children that anyone can do any job.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop pupils' awareness of the range of jobs available to everyone
Key Stage 1
Activity:
Career stereotypes - this activity encourages pupils to think about who does different jobs and the idea that all jobs are for everyone. It aims to challenge early gender stereotypes.
Learning Outcomes:
Further development of pupils' awareness of the range of jobs available to everyone
Activity:
Our neighbourhood - this activity encourages pupils to explore jobs in their local area.
Learning Outcomes:
Further development of pupils' awareness of the range of jobs available to everyone in their local area.
Activity:
When I grow up - this activity encourages pupils to do some research and find out facts about a job they are interested in. This starts to expand pupils' understanding of jobs to build on in KS2.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop pupils' awareness of their current strengths, skills and qualities and how these link to specific sector / jobs.
Key Stage 2
Activity:
Career alphabet - this activity gets pupils to use the alphabet to identify all the weird and wonderful jobs which they may not have come across before and develop their knowledge of unknown job.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop pupils awareness of the wide range of jobs available.
Activity:
Career crossover - pupils start to think about how school subjects align with careers and jobs.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop pupils' awareness of how the subjects they study can be linked to a wide range of different jobs.
Activity:
Future world of work - encourages pupils to think about work in the future. Pupils are asked to think about what the world will be like in the future and what kind of jobs there will be. Then working in pairs, they design their own job of the future.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop pupils' awareness of LMI with a focus on growth sectors.
Activity:
Primary World of Work – Y6 – a week of interactive workshops showcasing differing careers and an opportunity to apply for a work placement within the academy.
Learning Outcomes:
Students gain an understanding of the world of work, learning key employability skills through workshops and mock interviews.
Activity:
Transition into Y7 and what to expect with regards to careers education in a secondary academy.
Learning Outcomes:
All pupils start to understand that their career journey has started and will evolve with further support and guidance from their secondary school.
The Gatsby Benchmark
By adapting the secondary Gatsby benchmarks for Good Career Guidance, we have developed a Trust framework for best practice.
Our goal is to provide high-quality career related learning programs that introduce our students to various job sectors, help them understand the world of work, and teach them important skills for getting a job.
We also want to show them how what they learn in school connects to their future career choices.
