Careers at The Beacon College

The Careers programme is a central part of The Beacon College Curriculum and we are committed to increasing the possibility and probability of paid work for our young people, and also their ability to successfully complete that paid employment.  

The Beacon College Careers Programme encompasses: 

• Careers Education Curriculum. 
• Work Related Learning incorporated into all areas of the curriculum including: Functional Skills, The Preparing for Adulthood Curriculum and Food Technology lessons. 

• Life and Living Skills Curriculum.  
• Enterprise and Community Projects. 
• Volunteering opportunities. 
• Internal and external work experience and longer-term work placements. 
• Aim to provide Supported Internships in the future.  

Through our careers programme, pupils can expect to: 

• Develop a Personal Career Development Plan (with the voice of the student at the forefront).  
• Engage in individually planned and supported Work Experience, which is planned with the voice of the students at the forefront. 
• Participate in co-collaboration/enterprise projects.
• Develop a CV which employers can easily understand and one which is not purely based on qualifications. 
• Complete activities which will differentiate them positively on their CV’s and which will support their employment aspirations. 
• Benefit from weekly careers lessons through the Beacon College Careers Curriculum. 
• A comprehensive Life and Living Skills curriculum to support progress in independence and wellbeing.  
• Access opportunities across the curriculum to develop transferable life and social skills that support careers, employability and enterprise such as self-advocacy and decision-making skills.
• Learn about and access further education providers through open days and visits throughout their time at College.  
• Support to transition to their next step into employment or college.  
• Participate in a 5-year tracking exercise. 

The Beacon College Careers Curriculum:

All students at the Beacon College participate in weekly careers lessons. The lessons are planned through half-termly ‘themes’ which vary according to the pathway that the students are following. 

The themes follow three main areas: 

Personal Careers Development Plan: including skills, hopes, aspirations and exploring possible next steps. 

Meeting Local Employers: including preparing to meet, meeting an employer and discussing and evaluating the meeting.  

The World of Work: including modules such as Health and Safety and Dealing with Problems. Note that when learning about work, all learning will be linked to possible job opportunities or workplaces.

Personal Career Development Plan:

Within the Beacon College Careers Curriculum, all students are supported to write (and update) their Personal Career Development Plan. The Personal Career Development Plan then informs planning for suitable work experience placements and also informs discussions during the student’s annual review meetings. The Personal Career Development Plan includes information about the students likes and dislikes, and hopes, dreams and ambitions.  

Work Experience:

All students at the Beacon College have the opportunity to participate in work experience placements throughout their time at college. We aim to give our young people the opportunity to develop their career choices, get a taste of different work, and develop the critical employability skills needed for real working conditions. 

The Beacon College work experience placements:  

• are purposeful and relevant to the young person’s likes, skills and career aspirations. 
• allow the student to apply skills learned at college.  
• are supervised and managed to ensure the young person obtains a genuine learning experience suited to their needs. 
• have a structured plan for the duration of the placement to enable to student to work towards set targets.  
• have clear roles, responsibilities and expectations for the student and employer. 

• are followed by feedback from the employer which can be incorporated into the student’s CV. 

In Autumn 1 of each academic year, during careers lessons, students will be supported to explore jobs available in the local area and then identify jobs that they would like to try during that academic year. In order to gain a work experience placement, students are expected to submit an application form and participate in a job interview for the role. If successful, students will be supported to access their work experience placement by a teaching assistant at the college. A teaching assistant will support the students to progress towards set goals or targets at the placement, alongside their own IEP targets. The teaching assistant will also support the employer to develop their understanding of how to support the student successfully. In the future the Beacon College would aim to support local employers to become Disability Confident, in order to improve the likelihood of employers employing young people with learning disabilities. Once the student has completed the work experience placement they will be supported to evaluate and write about the placement for their CV and also practice talking about their placement in preparation for any future interviews.

Baker Clause Statement

As you may be aware, the statutory guidance issued on careers education in July reiterated the importance of the Baker Clause and we expect this to continue to be a focus in government this autumn.

To ensure collectively that compliance with the Baker Clause is robust across the EA Network and Careers Hubs, we will need to collate a national picture that demonstrates the action being taken to mitigate any non-compliance.