Guide one: stakeholders
This theme relates to Gatsby Benchmark one and two. Gatsby benchmark one states that every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education and guidance known and understood by pupils, parents, teachers and employers. Gatsby benchmark two states that every pupil, and their parents, should have access to good quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities.
On this page, you will find information on the following:
- Why is engaging effectively with stakeholders important in careers education for autistic young people?
- How we talk about careers education at Ambitious about Autism
- How can stakeholders be ambassadors and offer opportunities to your young people?
- Careers education and Ofsted
- Education engagement and Provider Access Legislation (PAL)
- Download our resources.
Why is engaging effectively with stakeholders important in careers education for autistic young people?
Stakeholders are:
- parents/carers
- governors
- local employers
- whole staff team
- Local Authority staff
- pupils and students
- senior leadership team
- your alumni.
Ensuring autistic young people can reach their potential in further education, training or employment is a collaborative effort and should begin as soon as a young person enters an education setting.
How we talk about careers education at Ambitious about Autism
In our specialist educational settings, we use the term ‘employability and enterprise’, rather than Careers Education Information Advice and Guidance (CEIAG). Our employability and enterprise offer includes all elements of CEIAG. However, the term itself is more inclusive and encompasses more fully our drive to ensure effective preparation for adulthood through careers education for all young people.
It is important not only to raise the aspirations of autistic young people themselves through curriculum and careers education activities, but also with all the stakeholders involved in their preparation for adulthood.
How can stakeholders be ambassadors and offer opportunities to your young people?
The SEND Code of Practice states: “Being supported towards greater independence and employability can be life transforming for children and young people with SEND. This support needs to start early and should centre on the child or young person’s own aspirations, interests and needs. All professionals working with them should share high aspirations and have a good understanding of what support is effective in enabling children and young people to achieve their ambitions.”
It is important that all members of staff, multidisciplinary teams and parents take a consistent approach to young people.
All of our educational settings have a three-year strategy, this is based on the Gatsby benchmarks we want to achieve, and our overarching vision for young people. The strategy gives us an opportunity to create tangible actions which allow us internally to monitor progress. It also allows us to externally showcase to all stakeholders what our approach is and how they too can be involved in helping our autistic young people realise their ambitions.
Download template: strategy document
Careers education and Ofsted
Careers education can be termed as the ‘golden thread’ throughout the whole school curriculum. Ofsted will triangulate its judgement based on the following criteria:
- leadership discussions, including data and evidence
- the views of the school or college’s young people
- what the inspection team observes.
Your senior leadership support is imperative to ensuring the golden thread of careers throughout your setting. Working alongside colleagues to create a visual learner journey and a three-year strategy based on your Gatsby Benchmark Compass Evaluation results.
Here are some quick wins for improved stakeholder engagement:
- interactive careers events with parents/carers and local community members
- at Ambitious College we deliver termly webinars for parents, see below an example of the webinar we deliver in term 1.
Download example: parents/carers webinar
- at Ambitious College we deliver termly webinars for parents, see below an example of the webinar we deliver in term 1.
- celebratory events, e.g. work experience employer of the year
- coffee mornings with parents and carers
- termly webinars with employers on how to support autistic young people in the workplace
- design a shop window sticker for the local businesses that support your setting
- engage with local authorities: do they have a local offer team or do they have a team of SEND specialists?
- further training – visit our training webpage for webinars that you invite employers to
- if you’re creating presentations to deliver to stakeholders and you’re using figures and data, please ensure you’re using the latest information
- termly meetings with special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) and speech and language therapists
- an annual report to your board of governors
- ensure that all EHC plan meetings have an employment-focused outcome.
Education engagement and Provider Access Legislation (PAL)
The PAL was enacted in January 2023. It specifies schools must provide at least six encounters with approved providers of apprenticeships and technical education for all their students.
In accordance with the new PAL requirements, we have refined and enhanced everything we do. This includes baselining effectively when learners join us at Ambitious College, including career exploration, vocational profile creation and vocational fit assessments. We ensure that our learners have a clear and achievable employability and enterprise action plan. We call the end goal ‘the end destination’ – our North Star.
Many of our learners are not sure of their North Star, and that’s why baselining and the activities mentioned above are so important. Equally, for those learners who have a clear end goal, such as working in a kitchen environment, we create targets that will help the young person gain the necessary skills needed for that end goal. At the same time, we create the opportunities for that learner to explore what it is about a kitchen that they may enjoy, through internal and then external work experience.
Alongside work experience, we invite providers into the college to meet with our learners. We carefully choose the learners for whom these conversations are most appropriate. We have begun to create a calendar of events and are tracking which learners have met with post-16 providers, and when and how many. We hold conversations with our family transition team at an early stage to ensure we can plan for learners’ end goal and consider what can be implemented through experience and curriculum to support this.
At Ambitious College we work with many supported internship providers and ask them to visit and run workshops on their provision throughout the year, including during National Careers Week. Each of our settings supports a different cohort of learners, but the PAL is important across all. It’s a big part of our employability and enterprise programmes and strategies in each setting. How it is met varies from setting to setting. We must carefully consider whether a speaker or provider is appropriate for a particular cohort, while also offering a broad range of options to raise aspirations and opportunities.
Download example: Provider Access Legislation
Download our resources
Template: strategy document
Example: Provider Access Legislation
Example: parents/carers webinar
