Excellent Futures – Careers at HGA
At Harris Garrard Academy we believe that a thoughtful, well-planned and implemented careers programme is an essential pillar in building a strong foundation for our students as they prepare for their future.
Our careers programme is based on the CDI Framework (2021) ambition of having the skills, knowledge, and the ability to enter ‘positive careers.’ A ‘positive career’ will mean something different to everyone, but it will typically include being happy with the way you spend your time, being able to make a contribution to your community and being able to have a decent standard of living.
HGA Excellent Futures is a comprehensive careers education programme that includes networking experiences, community engagement, and knowledge of local, regional, and national workplaces to support students in realising their potential and shaping their futures.
The six learning areas
Our careers vision
Our careers provision raises aspirations, instils ambition, and promotes achievement for our students. We engage, support, and empower our students to build confidence, resilience, and motivation. Students aim high, develop their skills and talents, and achieve their goals.
At an early age, children are exposed to careers and work-related information that develops their sense of enquiry not only about careers and higher/further education but also about their individual skills and aptitudes.
We work to promote careers in a wide range of fields with multiple pathways to success that challenge stereotypes and discrimination, including further education, training, and apprenticeships. You can download our Careers Education Policy and Providers Access Policy/Baker Clause from the documents at the bottom of our Teaching & Learning page.
Harris Garrard provides accurate and focussed careers information, advice, and guidance to meet our students’ individual needs ensuring informed choices. Our Careers Lead, Kimberley Ferran, can be reached by email at k.ferran@harrisgarrard.org.uk.
Our careers team
Many pupils have high aspirations but are unaware of how to plan for reaching them. Our quality careers guidance will broaden horizons and build cultural capital for our students whatever their background, allowing them the opportunity to find their path to a rewarding career.
Our Careers Advisor is John Milne (john.milne1@harrisfederation.org.uk) from our Harris Federation Careers Team. Students can contact them at any time or drop-in for advice and guidance on Thursdays in the Careers Corner. Click HERE to visit the Harris Federation Careers Education website.
The world is changing rapidly and it is important to recognise the exciting new opportunities that are available. To prepare our students for this dynamic labour market, we provide information, guidance and explicit teaching of:
- employability skills, career pathways and progression routes in the local labour market
- job applications and interviews
- educational institutions, courses, qualifications, entry requirements and costs
- employment sectors, employers, jobs, salaries and employment trends
- jobs, training and apprenticeships
- financial planning
Labour market information
When considering exciting opportunities for future careers, it’s important to have a good understanding of employment prospects within different industries, ie. is it a growing or declining sector?
Please use our Labour Market Information for All widget below to explore which careers are projected to grow to help guide your decisions.
It provides access to a selection of UK headline data relating to pay, weekly hours of work and future employment prospects for different occupations, as well as description of the occupation.
Simply type in the title of the job you are interested in and the widget provides a series of options from which you can select the most relevant to you. You can then look up another two occupations and compare. You can also select ‘display the UK average’ and compare the information with the occupation you have selected.
Our Careers Programme
Our careers programme is comprehensive and tailored to our students needs. This means our careers education is:
- embedded into the tutorial programme across all years
- embedded into the assembly programme across all years
- embedded into academy days across all years.
- including Higher Education, Further Education, training and apprenticeship talks throughout the year
- promoting Green Careers Week
- promoting National Careers Week
- promoting Enterprise Week and links with business
- promoting National Apprenticeship Week
- meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks
- ensuring access to quality information about apprenticeships and other non-academic routes
Download our Careers Curriculum and Delivery Programme.
Sixth Form careers
Our Sixth Form students receive extensive opportunities to broaden their experiences in the world of work. We offer:
- Weekly personal development days with dedicated computer time including sign posted resources for online and in person work experiences, university taster courses, industry offers for apprenticeships and insight days.
- Industry mentoring programmes to prepare the students for the world of work from providers such as Career Ready, the Social Mobility Foundation, M&G Skills for Life, and the Talent Foundry.
- Careers focused academy days with speakers from industry and post-18 options providers, and trips to universities.
- Support in gaining a relevant industry placement for a dedicated 2 week work experience in summer term.
- A dedicated Careers resources folder on the student SharePoint.
Signposted resources for wider opportunities include:
- Pathway CTM events
- www.springpod.com - gain experience with top employers and universities on Springpod
- Speakers for Schools
- Uptree events - gain exposure to potential employers
- Amazing Apprenticeships resources
University taster courses
- University of London taster courses
- PWC Employability Hub - find useful virtual tools to support you in developing key employability skills
Destinations data
Year 11
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
|
Staying in Education or Training |
89.90% |
93.00% |
94.00% |
95.00% |
97% |
|
Apprenticeship |
2.10% |
2.80% |
3.50% |
1.90% |
2.60% |
|
No Data |
6.40% |
2.80% |
1.10% |
5.30% |
1.50% |
|
NEET |
1.40% |
1.40% |
1.40% |
5.30% |
1.03% |
Year 13
|
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
Employment |
0% |
7% |
7% |
6% |
3% |
|
Staying in education or training |
86% |
93% |
89% |
73% |
92% |
|
FSM staying in education or training |
100% |
100% |
100% |
81% |
100% |
|
SEN staying in education or training |
87.5% |
80% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
|
Apprenticeship |
7% |
0% |
19% |
9% |
0% |
|
NEET |
14% |
5% |
4% |
9% |
5% |
Sixth Form retention
Percentage of last year's Year 11s that are now in our Year 12 in 2024-25: 28.9%
Percentage of last year's Year 12s that continued to study with us into Year 13 in 2024-25: 100%
