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Whinfell School is a specialist SEND residential school in the lake district. We have a long standing, vibrant careers programme which includes work experience for all our young people, lots of employer encounters, and strong links with local FE and HE establishments. We are really proud of work around the Gatsby Benchmarks, achieving 100% in all areas and work closely with Cumbria Careers Hub to make sure all of our young people are fully equipped with everything they need to take 'their best next step'.
Whilst the Gatsby Benchmarks ensure young people are receiving a broad and balanced careers curriculum, we were mindful that there was no specific focus on the skills our young people would need to be successful in gaining and holding employment. Whilst they were well versed in what they might need to do to achieve their dream career, we were seeking to develop a clear framework for development of employability skills, which is when we discovered Skills builder and the Accelerator Programme.
Skills Builder Accelerator has been absolutely brilliant. Via a fully funded place, we have received bespoke, individualised support to embed the key skills into your curriculum, providing clear and consistent language around skills for employability, easily recognisable logos which students can relate to and understand. With support from Skills Builder, we have built the skills into our work experience booklets so that students can identify when they have used the key skills in a work environment. We have also used the programme to develop our employer encounter programme so that all of our visitors are made aware of the skills prior to their visit, and can reference them in their presentation about when they have used these skills in their working life.
Overall impact
This programme has really benefitted our young people and staff alike. It has provided us with a simple, concise, effective framework from which to build a rich diet of opportunities for our young people, not only to understand what jobs opportunities there are out there, but what skills and attributes they will need to be successful in those jobs, to build experience and confidence in using these skills, and have a plethora of examples they can share at interview.
Keep it simple
The logos have been a brilliant, clear and consistent way of raising the profile of each of the skills. The symbols means it is simple and easy to identify which skill is being demonstrated, and we have had training across both staff teams so that they can be referred to consistently within both the education day and the evenings and weekends. Similarly, we have built the symbols into both the work experience booklets and employer encounter paperwork so it is clear, transparent and consistent across everything they do.
Start early, keep going
Skills Builder has been built into our Careers Policy and has a clear plan how the skills will be covered throughout all year groups, from Year 3 through to Year 11. Learners take part in workshops, assemblies and experiences of the workplace which ensure that they can understand what the skills are, and see them in practice in the working environment.
Measure it
We have developed our bespoke online system to track and monitor both when Skills Builder is delivered, and when students are demonstrating the skill. We can then look at gaps for each student, considering their individual progress towards each skill and considering how we can build in extra opportunities for them to develop and demonstrate skills where there are gaps in their knowledge.
Focus tightly
At least half termly, we have a focussed Skills Builder workshop. This focuses on a different skill each time. We use the Skills Builder Passport workbooks to support this, and reward students with the relevant certificate.
Keep practising
Work experience, workshops, assemblies, employer encounters, FE and HE visits and explicit references in lessons.
Bring it to life
When employers come in, we ask them to talk about how they use these skills in their everyday work. At work experience, students have the skills in their work experience diaries and each week they have to reflect upon which skills they used, and write down the specific examples of how they did so.
What's next
Begin to build a bank of alumni who can speak to our young people about when they undertook our Skills Builder Programme and how it has benefitted them in their careers and lives after school.
