The Careers Hub was launched in January allowing 33 schools and colleges working together with universities, training providers and employers and that that will rise to 120. Tony McDonough reports
A scheme launched earlier this year to link Liverpool city region schools with employers and training providers is to become much bigger.
The Careers Hub was launched in January by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) allowing 33 schools and colleges working together with universities, training providers, employers and career professionals to improve careers education.
However, extra Government funding has been secured to extend the hub’s reach to 120 schools and colleges across the city region.
Build networks
The 120 schools and colleges will have access to support and funding, including an expert ‘Hub Lead’ to help coordinate activity and build networks, a central fund to support employer engagement activities, and training for a ‘Careers Leader’ in each school and college.
The hub will help them to meet the eight ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’ of careers education by supporting them to better engage with employers, link curriculum learning to careers, and enabling young people to gain experience of the workplace.
Careers Hubs have been set up with funding from The Careers and Enterprise Company to inspire and prepare young people for the fast-changing world of work and is a central part of the governments Careers Strategy to help transform careers education.
The eight Gatsby Benchmarks are A stable careers programme; Learning from career and labour market information; Addressing the needs of each pupil; Linking curriculum learning to careers; Encounters with employers and employees; Experiences of workplaces; Encounters with further and higher education; Personal guidance.
Full potential
Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “This expansion builds on the success of the Liverpool Careers Hub, meaning we can support more young people in reaching their full potential.
“Whether they are looking into work experience, moving onto an apprenticeship or training and educational options, we are giving them crucial information with which to make positive decisions about their future.”
And Claudia Harris, chief executive of The Careers & Enterprise Company, added: “Careers education is improving across the country. The accelerated progress we’re seeing in Liverpool shows that this model is working and delivering for young people, with schools and colleges in this first wave of Careers Hubs already outperforming the national average across all aspects of careers education.”