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Careers impact system

Help he Careers Impact System is a process that drives continuous improvement in the quality of careers education in schools and colleges. It’s a systematic approach to raising standards and is directly linked to wider school and college improvement.

The Careers Impact System sets clearly defined standards as to what good looks like in careers leadership and careers provision – in what is called a maturity model - and maps the pathway towards achieving it - showing how careers leadership and excellence is a driver for overall school and college improvement.

What are the benefits?

It enables a whole school or college approach and engages senior leaders, enabling you to link careers to school and college improvement priorities
Locks continuous improvement into Careers Leaders’ approach to achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks
Assures confidence in the quality of careers guidance locally and nationally
Elevates and reinforces the profession of Careers Leadership in schools and colleges.

How does the Careers Impact System link to the Gatsby Benchmarks?

The Careers Impact System follows six themes, directly linked to the Gatsby Benchmarks with separate tailored approaches for:

Schools and special schools
Further Education

Feedback from the pilot phase

The feedback from our pilot phase has been overwhelmingly positive.

'Careers is the cornerstone of education, and the internal leadership review showed us how much we haven’t thought about yet. The maturity model takes a lot of that thinking work away – it enables us to work out where we are and what we need to do next because it’s written down for us – so we can focus on strategy and implementation.'

Senior Leader, May 2024

96%

of education leaders say it will lead to improved careers provision

86%

say it will lead to improved student outcomes

72%

say it has established strong links between careers and school improvement

96%

of education leaders say it will lead to improved careers provision

86%

say it will lead to improved student outcomes

72%

say it has established strong links between careers and school improvement

The system is founded on the following approach

Internal leadership reviews – a self-assessment process undertaken by and within schools and colleges bringing together key colleagues to examine current performance, identify what good looks like and how best to achieve it.
Peer-to-peer reviews - administered regionally at scale through trained Careers Hub or Trust facilitators - involves Careers Leaders in a local area sharing practice and progress against the Benchmarks to identify what works well and areas for improvement.
Expert reviews – administered centrally to moderate the peer-to-peer approach and to inform continuous improvement of the Careers Impact System and to feed into longer term impact evaluation.
National system reviews – a deeper dive into exploring system-wide themes, good practice and shared challenges which build system wide intelligence to influence targeted action for improvement to encourage whole system improvement.

I want to use the Careers Impact System, what are my next steps?

The first stage is the Internal Leadership Review which should be completed each year in line with an annual review of your institution’s careers strategy. All those involved in the distributed leadership of careers should be involved in the review process. You can do this now by logging into your Compass+ account

Within your annual evaluation processes, undertaking a Careers Impact internal leadership review will support:

Improved understanding of best practice in careers and of meaningful achievement of the Gatsby Benchmarks
Recognition of strengths in careers provision
Greater SLT engagement in and understanding of careers
Wider distributed leadership of careers and a support towards a whole institution approach to careers
Motivation and actions to develop careers provision

Schools and colleges have seen positive impact just from completing this first stage of the model and following the recommendations. If you have any questions, the hub team are happy to support.

If you are also interested in the peer-to-peer review process which provides additional support please email our careers team at careers-education@westyorks-ca.gov.uk