Why is this important

For a careers programme to be effective, it must recognise that each student comes to the programme with different needs and experiences. These will impact greatly upon the individual outcomes of the programme unless they are recognised and addressed.

Information about what students do after they leave the school will help you in your process of reviewing the effectiveness of your careers programme.

How to achieve 100%

When developing careers inputs, determine how the content raises aspirations and challenges stereotyping.

You will need to develop a system that allows the school and students to record all careers related activities undertaken, both during and outside of school time at an individual student level. Any such system must include a way to provide students with access to this information.

Use a combination of methods to find out what students do for three years after they leave the school. This can include annual e-mails to all leavers and the use of an Alumni system.

Important points to consider

Ensure that the school’s policies and process, that relate to aspiration and challenging stereotypes, include references to the Careers Programme. In this way the careers programme can be seen as contributing to the wider ambitions across the whole school.

If you do not purchase a system such as Unifrog, which allows you and the students to record careers activities, you will need to develop a system that allows you to achieve the same goal. Your Enterprise Coordinator can support you with this.

As schools, it is very difficult to track students in the way Connexions and Local Authorities services have done in the past. If you have systems established to try and capture this information, you will have met the requirements of this Benchmark.