Careers Advice
All schools and further education providers are required to provide independent careers advice to young people. Careers advice aims to help young people understand what types of jobs they want and the types of skills or qualifications they might need for a specific job.
Schools are legally required to publish the Careers Programme on their website, along with the contact details of their Careers Lead. This should give you an idea of what careers activities you can expect to do each year, and who to contact if you have any questions.
Careers advice requirements
- be impartial, this means it must offer advice that allows young people to make up their own mind based on their own interests
- include information on many different education or training options
- be provided to the young person so that it will promote their best interests
Careers advice for young people who have SEND
- all of the points above apply to pupils who have SEND
- schools must ensure that careers advice for pupils who have SEND is provided in a way that they can understand and informed by the young persons wishes and interests
- all staff providing careers advice to young people with SEND should help them to develop the skills and experience and where required qualifications they need to succeed in their chosen career.
- schools should make partnerships with businesses and other employers and organisations to help the pupil understand what is available to them so that they can benefit fully from the advice
The Gatsby Benchmark
To ensure high quality careers guidance, providers should:
- have a stable careers programme
- use learning from careers and labour market information
- address the needs of each student
- provide encounters with employers and employees
- provide experiences of work places
- provide encounters with further education and higher education
- provide personal guidance
Read more about the Gatsby Benchmarks.
You can also get advice from the National Careers Service
- Try the skills health check on the National Careers service website
- Try the Buzz quiz on Icould
The Jobs Hub
The Jobs Hub helping people of all ages who live in Bedford Borough find work and training opportunities.
Our staff are highly trained professionals who can offer bespoke help and advice to residents of all ages.
Jobs Hub services
- Individual help with CVs, job applications and interviews
- Access to job vacancies through our relationships with local employers, including apprenticeships
- Free internet access for job searching and completing applications online
- Business start-up workshops and enterprise coaching
- Weekly Jobs bulletin sent to your email with up to date vacancies available locally
- Back to work events including jobs, skills and enterprise fairs
- Access to training accredited and non-accredited
- Information about job trends and skills demanded by employers
- Help to access other opportunities including employment and enterprise mentoring, volunteering and work experience
- Linking to other partner services to help with specific issues, such as redundancy, housing, health, benefit or debt advice