By combining dedicated careers lessons, specialised careers days, virtual work experience, and meaningful encounters with employers and further/higher education providers, we build the confidence students need to navigate the 21st-century world of work.
Lead Contact Details: Amy White (Careers Lead),
Email: [email protected]
The Gatsby Benchmarks
We align our entire provision with the Gatsby Framework, as mandated by the Careers & Enterprise Company. This structure ensures our careers programme is stable, inclusive, and responsive to regional and national labour market needs:
- A stable careers programme
- Learning from career and labour market information (LMI)
- Addressing the needs of each pupil
- Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Encounters with employers and employees
- Experiences of workplaces
- Encounters with further and higher education
- Personal guidance
Student Summary of Entitlement
Every student at a Cygnet School is entitled to high-quality, impartial, and personalised CEIAG that empowers them to make informed, ambitious decisions about their future.
We recognise that students join our schools at different points in their academic journey and remain with us for varying lengths of time. Consequently, careers entitlement is highly individualised, dictated by need, age, developmental stage, prior experience, and intended destination.
Key Entitlements:
- Bespoke Initial Assessment: A comprehensive careers audit is completed upon admission with input from the student, parents/carers, and their community school.
- Curriculum Integration: All students complete an initial careers unit as their first Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education module. Ongoing, prioritised support is embedded within PSHE as required.
- Impartial Information: Students receive unbiased guidance on the full spectrum of educational, training, and employment pathways, underpinned by robust Labour Market Information (LMI).
- Professional Encounters: We guarantee meaningful interaction with employers, employees, and workplaces through safe, tailored in-person or virtual experiences.
- Practical Transition Support: Students receive targeted assistance with practical applications, including course research, CV production, personal statements, and interview preparation.
- Multi-Agency Alignment: Wherever appropriate, career planning is fully integrated with wider educational and transition frameworks, including Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) outcomes, Preparation for Adulthood priorities, and multi-agency clinical work. Reasonable adjustments ensure accessibility for all. Where an activity cannot be accessed in its traditional format, an equitable, meaningful alternative is always provided.
Summary of Core Programme
This core framework is dynamically adapted to meet the individual learning and wellness needs of each student.
- Choices Posts-16 and Post-18: The core focus of this module is to understand progression routes. Students explore post-16/18 options, research specific career sectors, and evaluate which pathway aligns best with their long-term professional goals.
- The Government’s 8 Priority Sectors for Economic Growth: The core focus of this module is information on the labour market and growth sectors. Students develop an understanding of the UK Government’s eight priority growth sectors and explore the careers connected to them.
- Exploring Sectors: The core focus of this module is career and sector research. Students investigate a sector of interest and develop a more detailed understanding of a chosen job within that sector.
- Virtual Work Experience: This module focuses on employer encounters and workplace understanding. Students investigate the ethos, aims and working practices of a chosen company, participating in interactive virtual workplace simulation tasks.
- Employability Skills: This module focues on understanding personal skills. Students distinguish between hard and soft employability skills, consider how skills can transfer between different occupations, and examine other factors that influence employability.
- CV Writing: The core focus of this module is developing and refining a CV. Students critique sample CVs, identify the features of a good CV, and use this knowledge to write their own industry-standard CV.
- Writing a Cover Letter: This modules focuses on targeted applications. Students understand the purpose and structure of a covering letter, identify information from a job description that needs to be addressed, and produce a personalised letter.
- Interview Preparation: This module focuses on preparing for recruitment. Students learn how to prepare effectively for an interview, explore appropriate and inappropriate interview behaviours, and practise responding to questions through a mock interview.
- Rights and Responsibilities in the Workplace: This module focues on employment law and workplace expectations. Students consider factors employers may take into account when recruiting and apply legal knowledge to realistic employment scenarios.
- Health and Safety in the Workplace: The core focus of this module is staying safe at work. Students explore workplace health and safety scenarios, apply their knowledge of health and safety legislation to case studies, and consider the specific risks and responsibilities associated with their own intended career or workplace.
Monitoring, Assessment, and Quality Assurance
The careers programme is monitored internally as part of our review and reflection cycle. We measure the impact of our programme through student, parent, and Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) feedback, accessing this information dynamically via verbal, written, or online evaluation channels. We use this feedback to directly reflect, adapt, and enhance our delivery.
We utilise the Careers & Enterprise Company’s Compass Tool to self-assess our framework against the Gatsby Benchmarks. These quality assurance results are systematically shared with the school’s governance structure.
Careers Policy and Provider Access Statement
In compliance with statutory provider access legislation (the Baker Clause), a comprehensive copy of our Careers Policy and Provider Access Statement is permanently accessible on the school website.
SEND Careers Information
Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are highly supported throughout their careers education journey at Cygnet. Our focus remains centered on removing barriers, unlocking individual potential, and tailoring aspiration milestones to individual capacities. Please contact our school Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) and Careers Lead for tailored guidance and specific reasonable adjustments.
Parent and Carer Entitlement
Parents and carers maintain a vital role in supporting young people to explore their aspirations, navigate the complex world of modern work, and make confident, ambitious choices about their next steps. Cygnet Schools are deeply committed to working in active partnership with families to ensure clear access to information, resources, and clinical transition planning.
Parents and carers are entitled to clear information detailing the school’s structural careers curriculum, operational timelines, and active local post-16/18 progression routes.
Careers information for parents and carers is updated regularly and made available through several flexible communication channels, including:
- The dedicated careers section of our school website.
- Individual strategic discussions and progress consultations.
- Care Programme Approach (CPA) review milestones.
- Direct collaborative contact with the school’s Careers Lead.
