Careers Education and Guidance
The information below summarises our careers programme which is recognised as outstanding. Our careers leader is Mrs S Keane (email careers@hemelhempsteadschool.co.uk)
Parents and Carers, Friends of the Hemel Hemsptead School as well as Local Businesses are invited to contact our Careers Lead, Mrs. Keane, for opportunities to be guest speakers, provide workshops, offer work experiences and participate in Careers Event during each academic year.
'Careers education is generally a strength. ‘Golden threads’ run through all year groups, and there are a wide range of opportunities to engage with employers. This includes work experience in Year 10. Pupils have the information they need to make well-informed choices about their next steps. This includes an appropriate programme of support for sixth-form students. The school meets the requirements of the Baker Clause, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships'.
Ofsted, December 2022
Our Careers Programme
The Hemel Hempstead School seeks to maximise the life chances of all of our students and so it is crucial to prepare young people for life beyond school.
The school aims to meet the needs of all students so the programme will be differentiated to ensure progression through activities that are appropriate to students’ stages of career learning, planning and development. They need to be empowered to plan and manage their own futures and availability of information is a key determinant of career choice.
The programme will raise aspirations, challenge stereotyping and promote equality and diversity. It supports social mobility by improving opportunities for all young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities.
The school endeavours to follow the DfE statutory careers guidance (2018) which includes the Gatsby Benchmarks.
Measuring the impact
One of the main ways we measure and assess the impact of our careers programme is using Compass to generate a Gatsby profile. Compass is a tool for schools and colleges in England that supports schools to evaluate their careers activity against the eight benchmarks of best practice - known as the Gatsby Benchmarks. The tool was built in partnership with the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
Hertfordshire Parent & Carer Survey - Apprenticeship Awareness
Our careers policy will next be reviewed in May 2025.
What we do
The list below shows the events and opportunities that we provide students to prepare them for their next steps and the wider world, most events are recorded by students on Unifrog where we request feedback from students and will ask for parents’ feedback from September 2024
Useful Websites:
- Unifrog - The universal destinations platform.
- Hertfordshire Opportunities Portal (hopinto.co.uk)
- Careers advice - job profiles, information and resources | National Careers Service
- Careers (servicesforyoungpeople.org)
- http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/
- Apprenticeships
- Universities UK
- http://www.ucas.com/
Gatsby Benchmark Evaluation - July 2024
Gatsby Benchmark Evaluation July 2024
| Stable Careers Programme | 100% |
| Learning from careers and labour market information | 100% |
| Addressing the needs of each pupil | 100% |
| Linking curriculum learning to careers | 100% |
| Encounters with employers and employees | 100% |
| Experiences of workplaces | 100% |
| Encounters with further and higher education | 100% |
| Personal Guidance | 100% |
Full mark achieved in every element except Personal Guidance as KS5 offered a meeting but the take up was not so successful. 100% was achieved for KS4.
Benchmark completed with the understanding of the following improvements to be made in the next few weeks:
- Yearly Careers Calendar to be approved by Governors
- Careers Calendar to be added to the Careers Page on our website
- Wording to be improved on Careers Page on our website to include local business to contact Careers Coordinator, link to weekly newsletters, offer feedback from parents
Careers Calendar to be set up for next academic year by end of July 2024.
Scholars' Education Trust peer review reported very positively on our provision as well as raise given directly by Claire Robins on our output on LinkedIn.
More collaboration with colleagues to be better planned to supervise Careers Events in school.
We have moved from SFYP to Unifrog to package our Work Experience. We currently have 20 places filled with SFYP which cost £60 per head. Parents are asked to pay £30. Our intake on Unifrog is currently 90% of students with either a completed or partial placement organised.
Unifrog has also been rolled out to all students, used in Form Time to enter activities, provides content for our Pace lessons as well as supporting out Y13 students with their UCAS applications.
2024/2025 Careers Budget to be agreed soon to enable confirmation with SFYP provisions regarding Personal Guidance and Work Experience.
Careers Education and Guidance on our website to be reviewed by end of July 2024.
Year 7
Careers in PACE:
- Having a positive career
- Types of jobs and industries
- Your personal skills and qualities and how these link to careers
- Gender stereotypes in careers
- Where to find information on careers
- Long term and short term goals
Unifrog
Guest speakers
Year 8
Female Role Model Event
- Careers in PACE:
- Revising
- Different types of memory
- Procrastination
- Specific revision techniques
- Organising your time effectively
- Your personal skills and qualities
- Skills and qualities in different jobs
- Enterprise skills and employability skills
- Our local job market
- Different types of jobs and opportunities in the workplace
Guest Speakers
Unifrog
Year 9
University Awareness Workshops
Option Day
Options advice and Evening for parents
Careers in PACE:
- Differences between careers and occupations
- Different types of job role
- Different types of industry
- The UK job industry
- Your own skills toolkit
- Labour market information
Guest Speakers
Unifrog
Year 10
Work Experience
CV writing and interview skills
1:1 guidance with Services For Young People Hertfordshire
Post 16 information talks
Employability workshop
Careers in PACE:
- CV writing
- Letter of applications
- Job adverts and job descriptions
- Preparing for a job interview
- Employment laws, rights and responsibilities
- Contracts and pay
- Working as part of a team
Unifrog
Guest Speakers
Year 11
Post 16 Options Information Evening and Post 16 Interviews
Generation Dacorum Job Fair
1:1 guidance with Services For Young People Hertfordshire
Careers in PACE:
- GCSE Pod
- Revision techniques
- Volunteering
- CV writing
- Letter of applications
- Job adverts and job descriptions
- Preparing for a job interview
- Self worth and celebrating successes
- Employment laws, rights and responsibilities
- Contracts and pay
- Working as part of a team
- Preparing for university
Unifrog
Guest Speakers
Year 12
- Dragon's apprentice (targeted)
- Careers in PACE
- Skills package: (CV writing, student finance, choosing a university, open days, personal statements, apprenticeships & taking a gap year).
- Healthcare insight
- Law insight
- Social Media Profiles
- Post 18 options
- Work experience
- UCAS and Apprenticship Fair
- Mock interviews & Cover Letter Workshop
- Unifrog
- Guest Speakers
Year 13
- Careers in PACE
- Attendance to UCAS Discovery Exhibition
- University applications
- Guidance interviews (on request)
- Apprenticeship guidance (e.g. Police/BBC/Quantity surveyor)
- OxBridge entry examinations
- Unifrog
- Guest Speakers
