Marches Careers Hub celebrates year of success

The Marches Careers Hub has enjoyed a year of success – with sustained improvements across the last 12 months, new figures show.

The hub – which is delivered by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership for the Careers and Enterprise Company in partnership with Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin councils – works to transform careers education by linking education and training providers with the business community.

New figures for the past academic year show it has reached thousands of students and hundreds of teachers and consistently improved its achievement of key performance indicators.

Highlights include:

• Sustained improvements against all eight Gatsby Benchmarks – the industry standard for assessing world-class careers provision.

• More than 31,000 live views for a series of labour market sector-based broadcasts run throughout the year – with a further 12,700 views on demand.

• 4,410 students and 113 teachers using its innovative Start in the Marches local labour market platform to find vital information about jobs and career opportunities and 8,877 unique visits to the site.

• More than 2,500 students and young people taking part in the hub’s Future Skills Questionnaire.

Andriané Usherwood-Brown, strategic careers hub lead, said the figures showed the impact the hub was having across the whole Marches region.

“These figures demonstrate the progress the careers hub has made in the last year in our work to forge strong and effective partnerships with business, education and training providers and students and young people.

“We held a really successful conference earlier in the summer attended by more than 50 stakeholders, with some excellent feedback for the work we are doing and the progress being made to deliver a first-class careers infrastructure.

“The conference also helped develop some excellent ideas for the year ahead, with work to recruit more Enterprise Advisers from industry to continue our work to help bridge the gap between education, training and industry due to start in the autumn.

“We’ve also held a series of briefings for careers leaders, volunteer Enterprise Advisers, governors and head teachers as well as sponsoring two separate successful apprenticeship events.

“The success of the past 12 months means we are well placed to build on this platform over the year ahead, and we look forward to working alongside all our stakeholders to continue to develop a careers landscape which continues to serve the whole Marches region well.”

Herefordshire case study

The value of the Marches Careers Hub’s Enterprise Advisers can be seen clearly in the work of Ruth Whitehouse.

Ruth, who has some 50 years’ experience working as a senior business leader, supports Whitecross High School in Hereford.

Ruth has a real understanding of schools as she is involved with governance as Chair and board member in two other schools. She also supports with mock interviews, attending careers events and talks. As an Enterprise Adviser she also offers strategic advice and guidance using her business experience to challenge thinking.

She says: “I support the school in the capacity of a ‘sounding board’, also challenging decisions to ensure every opportunity has been considered and helping to generate ideas in support of their careers plan. “The EA role allows the career offering to be maximised and allows the schools to think creatively on how their offering engages the students.  I would encourage individuals to take up the EA role, you can be from any business or education background to do a great job; helping our future workforce achieve their potential and recognise all the possibilities available to them.”

Telford case study

Phil Goodwin, the deputy headteacher at Telford Park School, is a big supporter of the Marches Careers Hub and has no doubts about the benefits it has brought.

He said: “Being part of the careers hub has become essential to the careers programme at Telford Park School. With regular updates, via online meetings and newsletters, we are kept well informed about changes to the careers education landscape including important policy changes to keep the school compliant.

“As well as this we are supported to put on events with the hub providing a number of local business links and volunteers to work with pupils in school. All of this helps with meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks, as you get advice from the hub but also from the network of professionals working in schools.”

Phil said the hub’s network of Enterprise Advisers also played a hugely important role in bridging the gap between schools, colleges and the workplace.

“Enterprise Advisers are a fantastic resource to support schools with careers education. They provide an extra layer of advice and guidance to help schools to reach the Gatsby Benchmarks.

“Young people in schools find the impact of Enterprise Advisers invaluable, especially when they work face to face with pupils. Pupils have commented that these volunteers can bring careers education to life and tell it how it is in the real world.”