Visualising current and future situations
Try rating the management and provision of career eduction in your schools against the themes on this wheel. This will help you see which areas are stronger than others. Then mark where you would like to be in three years' time. This will help you set priorities and goals for the coming year.
Hover over each of the themes on this wheel to find out more information.
Effective career education involves the support of families and community. Schools should actively involve parents and whānau in career planning for young people. To get them involved, many schools use initiatives such as whānau careers expos and subject choice evenings. They may also have whānau members act as mentors.
Other community members can be involved in many ways, such as helping to mentor students, providing work experience opportunities, or sharing their knowledge as guest speakers.
Reflection questions
Involving the community
- Do parents or whānau receive regular updates on career-related matters through newsletters, career and subject choice evenings, report/parent interview evenings, the school intranet and special events such as community and school expos and career days?
- Does the school run specific career events to broaden parents' knowledge of career opportunities and information resources?
- Are parents consulted as part of the needs analysis and planning process for career education?
Networking and sharing ideas and good practice
Networking between schools is vital for:
- sharing career education initiatives
- sharing information about what ideas have and have not worked
- finding out what initiatives are happening in the region, as well as around the country.
The use of clustering has been successful in terms of fostering effective learning communities and the sharing of ideas and resources. Some schools find teleconferencing a very useful way of networking, as it saves on travel time.
Reflection questions
Networking and sharing ideas and good practice
- Are staff making the most of networking opportunities?
- What other ways can the sharing of ideas and good practice be adopted?
Formalising external support
All schools will need various forms of support from external organisations and agencies. Where external support is sought, you should set out the roles and responsibilities of all parties in a written agreement. This helps to:
- ensure effective and appropriate professional support is provided
- provides a framework to clarify needs and identify gaps
- helps in goal setting
- ensures progress is monitored.
Reflection questions
Formalising external support
- Are there formal links with business, industry, tertiary education and training providers, and community organisations?
- Are relevant groups involved in needs analysis, planning and review initiatives?
Providing active leadership
The importance of, and commitment to, careers education within a school is raised when the principal leads and takes responsibility for career education strategy, and conveys this to all staff.
Whole-school success has been most apparent where the principal links the vision for career education with the whole school curriculum and its management systems.
Reflection questions
Providing active leadership
- In what ways can your principal convey the importance of, and commitment to, careers education within the school?
- Is career education publicly promoted and supported by the school management team?
Taking a whole-school approach
A team approach utilises the strengths and perspectives of a wider range of people and extends staff ownership of, and commitment to, careers education.
Widespread staff involvement in analysing needs, identifying gaps and planning solutions enriches programmes and helps staff take responsibility for integrating aspects of career education into their teaching. Having a senior manager on the careers team also provides traction in implementing a school-wide programme.
Reflection questions
Taking a whole-school approach
- Is careers education promoted through a variety of ways to staff, students, parents, employers and the wider community?
- Do all curriculum department plans cover career education?
- Do core school publications include information on careers?
Engaging with the whole school staff is vital. It helps ensure that teachers:
- understand why and what career education is seeking to achieve in their school
- understand and support their role in improving outcomes for students.
Widening staff engagement also challenges the concept that career education is the sole responsibility of the careers department.
A good way to ensure staff buy-in is to provide appropriate professional resources, training and support in career education.
Reflection questions
Getting staff buy-in and providing professional development
- How can wider staff involvement be encouraged?
- Do teachers see themselves as career educators in their subject area? Are they skilled at using curriculum opportunities to develop students’ knowledge and skills?
Developing individual student career plans
Career plans are valuable for enabling students to:
- gain an understanding of their own interests and abilities
- find out about the range of career options open to them
- learn how to access information about possible careers
- develop decision-making skills.
Students need to develop these skills, as they are vital in ensuring their success throughout their career and through many changes.
Reflection questions
Developing individual student career plans
- Do students get staff support to help identify education and career ideas, and the relevant skills and knowledge required for these?
- Are students aware of their personal strengths and values, and do they know they have choices?
Delivering to target groups
Have a methodology and process to identify and establish the specific needs of each group within the school, and develop appropriate goals, strategies and programmes for each.
You should include plans for at-risk or gifted students, and others with diverse needs.
Reflection questions
Using evidence to identify groups and meeting their needs
- Do the programmes meet the needs of Māori, Pacific, migrant and refugee students? Do they also meet the needs of students with diverse abilities?
- Is there a referral process and an appointment system for individual student interviews?
Integrating career education into the school curriculum
Successful career programmes in schools make career education an integral element of the school’s curriculum. Integration means more than ensuring careers are addressed within learning areas, it means careers education is an essential component of the education a school provides.
Reflection questions
Integrating career education into the school curriculum
- Is the provision of career education recognised as a whole school responsibility?
- Do curriculum plans for each department contain career education?
Using evidence to inform planning and self-review
Robust processes for collecting and using baseline information are needed to guide decision making, and enable teachers to monitor the effects of programmes on student knowledge, learning and behaviour. The identification of school-specific priorities should be based on valid, reliable data focused on students.
Schools need to put a self-review process in place to evaluate the effects of actions taken to meet students’ career education needs. This helps to ensure continuous improvement occurs.
Reflection questions
Using evidence to inform planning and self review
- Are there robust processes for the collection and use of baseline information?
- Is there a self-review process to evaluate the impacts of actions taken to meet students’ career education needs?
Embedding career education goals in strategic and annual plans
Improvement is more likely to be sustainable when the strategic and annual plans include a vision for career education, as well as specific, measurable career education goals. Boards of trustees can then expect regular reports from senior management on the progress of the career education programme towards fulfilling its stated goals.
Many schools do this by developing a career education plan – a strategic document that underpins sustainable career education in the school.
Reflection questions
Embedding career education goals in strategic and annual plans
- Is your plan a "living" document?
- Is your plan future-focused, providing a vision for careers education in your school?
- Are career education goals included in strategic and annual plans? Are these goals specific and measurable?
- Does your board of trustees receive regular reports from senior management?
Developing a career education programme
To ensure coverage and continuity for all students at all levels, it is important that schools document all learning opportunities, interventions and interactions they intend to provide. This is often called a career education programme.
Reflection questions
Developing a co-ordinated career education programme
- Are programmes planned and sequential across year levels so that all components are covered and repetition avoided?
- Is career education included in whole staff professional development and in new staff induction?
