Careers Education

[Musician1]

I'm curious about your views on careers education and advice in secondary schools? Is it good, bad or don't know enough to decide? I'm applying for a job that will involve making sure careers education is effective for 11 - 18 year olds so I'd be really interested in hearing your thoughts if you have kids in that age range.

Do you have an Oxbridge degree? If not, what will be your approach to teachers telling pupils that Oxbridge is "not for you"?

From your user name - will you be making sure that all children have access to the means to an appreciation of Western classical music and an understanding that other cultures have centuries old, deeply researched and carefully practised musical traditions?

Do you have any knowledge or understanding of pedagogy outside Europe and North America? Are you able to guide teachers to teaching African philosophy, or Arabic mathematics, or Caribbean playwriting as a standard part of what children should know?

Will you be monitoring and encouraging an increase in the number of black pupils going on to degrees in Art History or Architecture?

That's what I'd want from someone claiming or seeking to be effective in this area.

Hmmm. Not sure these are top priorities.

I think lots of DC do not know what they want to do post 18/21. Therefore choosing A levels is based on poor information. So advice on good subject combinations is a priority. This keeps options open.

Secondly, try and avoid DC taking A levels that limit career progression. If they come to you with excellent GCSEs, try and suggest careers where they will stretch themselves and are ambitious. Lots of DC do think that a career is out of reach when it isn’t. Help with confidence and making good choices. Be honest about any work experience needed or the grades required. Don’t sell DC short.

The Sutton Trust has good research on this. Aim high and ensure DC hear about all sorts of careers and how you break into them. Find role models. Make sure anyone advising doesn’t think all universities or courses are the same. Keep up to date with trends and salaries in various careers.

Making sure the advice is effective is about having an action plan isn’t it? What are the goals? What does effective mean? How will you measure success? What info will you need? How will you gather it? How will you interpret it? How will you address any shortcomings? Will you interview the Dc? What will success look like?

I think this is an important role and certainly contributes to social mobility if done well.

How much of your time will be given to this role? Some schools have a designated teacher who concentrates on career education only, whilst other schools it’s very much an add on (after thought) to a teaching/subject workload. Effectiveness will vary depending on this too.

I agree with all you say, PresentingPercy, but would hope that anyone going into this area would view all that as standard. So my examples were specific suggestions for things I see being ignored or neglected.

There was a brief but important discussion about access to music education on Private Passions (R3) yesterday: with Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason.

Unfortunately it’s definitely not the case that that advice is standard and leads to DC from under privileged homes attending less good universities and not accessing the careers they could with better advice. History of Art isn’t that important for these DC but having a career that pays well lifts them out of poverty and should be a very high priority.