Our careers programme

The aim of our Careers Programme is to ensure that all our pupils are prepared for life after Ark Pioneer Academy, for university and for the world of work. In particular, we want to ensure that our pupils develop the skills and knowledge needed for the changing job market. To do this, we offer our pupils a range of opportunities to engage with employers, further education and higher education providers through their time at the Academy.

Our aim is to meet all the Gatsby Benchmarks for every child. This ensures that we are preparing our pupils as well as we possibly can for life beyond school. To meet these Gatsby Benchmarks, our Careers Programme strategic objectives for this year are:

• To track pupil by pupil the careers curriculum, visits, trips and individual experiences supporting the Careers Programme
• To facilitate pupils to actively reflect on each experience they have through the use of post trip and activity reflections
• To ensure pupils know about the changing job market and the world of work and how this relates to their academic subjects in preparation for choosing GCSE subjects
• To ensure pupils are well prepared for work experience and have the benefit of joining a workplace as part of their year 10 personal development curriculum

Curriculum

Careers education takes place in a variety of contexts within the school. This includes:

• Year group specific sessions in Values and Character
• Drop Down Day sessions focus on careers 
• Year 9 options process include an application and interview process
• Work Experience week takes place for Year 10 in July and Year 12 all complete a work experience placement
• Assemblies - we invite a range of employers to speak to pupils about their careers
• Careers Week Activities - during Careers Week we host a range of activities
• Through the academic curriculum – all subjects link careers when teaching to ensure pupils understand how the skills they are learning are relevant to the workplace
• Experiences of the workplace
  • Work Experience in Year 10 and 12
  • A range of opportunities across other year groups learn about different careers and workplaces

Career Opportunities

As well as the core curriculum, pupils have the opportunity to take part in a range of activities relating to the world of work in school. These include:

• Trips associated with a subject e.g. visit to Science Museum to understand about Careers within the STEM fields as part of British Science week, visit to France as part of a residential.
• Workplace Skills workshops and competitions e.g. Enterprise competition, Unifrog Skills and Enterprise, PWC,  MyBnk
• Enrichment – employers support our extra-curricular provision including in coding

There are also opportunities run outside the school day, which are advertised to pupils through noticeboards and emails and are an independent way for pupils to learn about areas of particular interest to them. This has led to pupils gaining mentors, visiting workplaces and gaining new skills.

Impact

We measure the success of our University and Careers curriculum in the following ways:

• Pupil voice & reflections – we place a lot of emphasis on pupil voice, listening to how they feel our school Values and Character programme, pillar days and careers offer are supporting their personal development. Surveys and focus groups help us to gain insight on what pupils find useful and what we can improve (e.g. further requests for in-person university trips post pandemic). In addition, pupils reflect on their experiences when they visit workplaces or hear from speakers. This allows us to identify which experiences pupils enjoyed and which they didn’t, as well as providing a record for the pupil they can use in future applications.
• Pupil Level Tracking – as we track what our pupils do each academic year individually, this allows us to identify groups of pupils who are not receiving as many opportunities for careers and university related experiences. It also allows us to see trends and patterns between attainment data, destinations and the experiences pupils in that year had.
• Evaluation of the programme – each year, we have an annual review of the programme with Ark, who assess how many of the Gatsby Benchmarks we are meeting and identify strategic goals for us to work on over the next year.
• Destinations Data – we will monitor destinations data each year, to ensure we understand what our pupils go on to do after Ark Pioneer Academy and whether the Information, Advice and Guidance they received during their time here has had an effect.    

In year 10 we offer one week’s work experience to every single pupil. This is a fantastic opportunity to for all pupils to experience working in an industry that matches their future career. In a 2017 report the DFE identified multiple benefits of undertaking work experience including communication skills and increased confidence.

Our pupils experienced working in the local council, hairdressers, architecture firms and film studios, alongside many other industries. We are very lucky to have the support of our school community and wider community in Barnet to help secure a wide range of roles. The employers were very impressed with our pupils' commitment to the roles, high levels of initiative, and kindness within the workplace.

In Year 12 we also work with students to ensure they secure a work experience placement within the year.