This blog is designed to keep you up-to-date with Careers Education, Information and Guidance (CEIAG) available locally, nationally and through the school. I’ll be posting information about employment and training opportunities available locally as well as details of open days and useful websites. The world of education, employment and training opportunities is changing rapidly so keep checking in for the latest information.

Mr Cross


Friday 30 October 2015

"Earn or Learn" task-force announced

The Paymaster General, Matt Hancock MP, who chairs the Government's 'Earn or Learn Task-force', has said he wants to create a 'no excuses' culture. The Government is to require young unemployed people to attend three weeks of 'boot camp' at job-centres, teaching them vital job application skills, or forfeit their benefits. As of April 2017, under 21s will lose all benefits if they are unemployed for more than six months and fail to undertake an apprenticeship, training or community work placement. The classes will take place within the first three months of their claiming job-seekers' allowance. Read more about the Government's plans here.

Unusual Apprenticeships

The Daily Telegraph has compiled a list of "unusual" Apprenticeships. They range from training to be a crime scene photographer to becoming a fashion and textiles technician. Read more about them here.

Support for Work Experience

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has called for the government to bring back compulsory work experience for under 16s, saying that 82% of more than 3,000 bosses they polled supported the move. The coalition government scrapped compulsory work experience in England in 2012. BCC director, John Longworth, said scrapping compulsory work experience had been "careless... but it is not too late to correct the mistake". The survey found that 79% of employers agreed with the statement that ‘Work experience is vital for equipping young people with the skills they need’, whilst 55% valued volunteering and 69% said paid part-time work was key. However, 36% of employers admitted that their own firms offered no work experience. Large employers were most likely to offer placements, with 88% of firms with more than 250 employees offering placements. However, in employers with less than 10 employees 59% offered no work placements. 
[ source GTAssociates ]

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Morrisby Career Profiling

The Vocare company is offering to run the Morrisby Profile in school for students in Years 10 to 12. This is a series of tests lasting approximately three hours which the Morrisby organisation uses to generate a profile of an individual’s interests, abilities and aptitudes relevant to the world of work. You can try some practice profile questions here.
If there is sufficient interest, Vocare would run the tests in school on the morning of 18th April 2016 which is the INSET day after the Easter holiday. If only a few Beaumont students wish to take the test, Vocare may offer them the opportunity to complete the profiling at another local school. This letter and pamphlet from Vocare provide additional information about the Morrisby Profile. If you wish your child to undertake the profiling, please return the slip to me at school as an expression of interest. No payment is required at this time but should the process proceed, payments can be made through the school's electronic payments system or by cheque.
The school has hosted Morrisby Profiling in previous years and students and their parents have valued the outcomes but please note that Vocare is a private company and not part of Beaumont School. Several organisations offer free, on-line, basic skills profiling tests, some of which can be accessed through this blog …

Monday 12 October 2015

Apprentices set to out earn some Graduates

The Boston Consulting Group has modelled the earnings potential for Apprentices and concluded that school-leavers who take the best apprenticeships should earn about £1.4m over their working life, which is £51,870 more than the projected earnings of a graduate from a non-Russell Group University. The modelling estimated that Oxbridge graduates would earn almost £1.8m over their lifetimes, and graduates from other Russell Group universities £1.6m. The next group was Higher-Level Apprentices who take a level 5 qualification equivalent to a foundation degree, who were slightly ahead of graduates of non-Russell Group universities. These graduates were only fractionally ahead of higher-level Apprentices with a Level 4 qualification, who were projected to earn £8,160 less over their working lives.

Advanced Apprentices with level 3 qualifications had much lower projected earning power, estimated at just over £1m, but were forecast to earn more than those who just had A levels. When the forecasts were expressed as average annual sum, rather than lifetime earnings, graduates did better than the best Apprentices. However, apprentices typically start earning three years earlier than university students.