Careers and Enterprise Company: ‘North East schools ‘instrumental’ in the creation of the Careers Strategy’
Careers and Enterprise Company’s Chief Operating Officer Natalie Cramp told delegates at SCHOOLS NorthEast’s FutureReady18 conference that North East schools were instrumental in the creation of the Government’s new Careers Strategy.
Speaking to the packed crowd, Ms Cramp said: “North East schools were instrumental in the development of the Government’s new statutory Careers Strategy.
“The pilot of the Gatsby Benchmarks took place in North East schools and they were fundamental in this strategy. Thank you to those schools in the room who were part of this.”
FutureReady18 welcomed over 120 delegates from across the country, as well as school delegates from the North East.
The annual conference, held at Newcastle Racecourse, was focused on the implications that new Careers Strategy would have for schools, both at primary level and secondary level.
Keynote speaker Adrian Lyons, HMI and National Lead for Economics, Business and Enterprise at Ofsted, focused his speech on the changes to Ofsted inspections in line with the Careers Strategy.
He said: “Careers are now part of the inspection guidance for primaries as well as secondaries. Work experience, particularly at sixth form level, needs to be meaningful and well planned out.”
On Ofsted’s inspections of careers provision in secondaries, Mr Lyons said: “Our inspectors are going to raise their game.”
The day was split between primary and secondary focused sessions, meaning that delegates could access presentations that would best support the needs of their particular school.
Popular sessions included the ‘Journey to 8 Benchmarks’ with David Baldwin, Executive Head of Churchill College, ‘Careers: What does good look like in Primary Schools’ with Lindsey Joy and Ryan Gibson from NELEP, and ‘Primary Careers Fairs organised by secondary school students’ with Sue Taylor of Heaton Manor and Lucy Oades of West Jesmond Primary.
Chris Zarraga, Director of Operations at SCHOOLS NorthEast, said: “The FutureReady18 conference was a huge success and delegates took a myriad of information with them from the day.
“Our aim was to equip schools with as much knowledge as possible as to how the Government’s new statutory Careers Strategy will affect them – we had excellent feedback from the day and hope that schools are now more confident going forward, be it from an Ofsted perspective or from seeing how other schools have managed to make it work.”