LCT Careers Hub has been working with 70 schools across the Liverpool city region and will now be extended to every secondary school and college in the region. Tony McDonough reports

A scheme to bring schools together with employers and training providers is to be extended across the Liverpool city region.

LCT Careers Hub has been working with 70 schools across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton and will now be extended to every secondary school and college in the region.

It links the schools with universities, training providers, employers and career professionals to improve careers support for young people in their areas, through a focus on best practice and “meaningful employer encounters”.

Backed by the Department for Education, the hub’s aim is to help more schools and colleges to meet the eight Gatsby Benchmarks of careers education. They 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.

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.

Sally Beevers, careers hub lead at Growth Platform, said: “With this vital funding from the Department of Education and nationally coordinated support from the Careers and Enterprise Company, this will allow us to build on the success of our wave one and wave two Careers Hubs.

“Our young people already have more support and better career interventions, supported by local employers who continue to inspire and prepare the young people of the region for the fast-changing world of work.”