At Swanwick Hall School we provide our students with opportunities and experiences to enhance their life choices, helping them to make a positive contribution to the world we share. Everything we do is underpinned by our three values of inclusivity, respect and resilience. We aim to provide students with a vision for their achievements further into the future, beyond school, through a comprehensive and cohesive, high-quality careers education programme. In a highly competitive employment market, the choices our students need to make are becoming more complex. As such, our curriculum ensures that our students can develop skills for employability and guides students into making well-informed, realistic decisions to make a positive careers choice. Our aim is that their choices allow them to be happy with the way that they spend their time, being able to make a positive contribution to their community and to sustain a decent standard of living. In addition, we want to ensure that our young people are prepared to make successful transitions into their next steps.  

Students are entitled to Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) which meets professional standards of practice and is both personalised to the individual and impartial. Our programme is designed to meet the CDI learning outcomes, raise aspirations, challenge stereotyping and promoting equality and diversity.  

Our programme of study follows the Career Development Institute (CDI) Framework which aims to ensure students make positive career choices. There are six key areas: 

  • Growth throughout life- to enable students to reflect on themselves and their strengths 
  • Explore possibilities- to enable students to investigate a range of options and workplaces 
  • Manage career- to allow students to make the most of opportunities 
  • Create opportunities- to enable students be proactive about their future and build positive relationships with others 
  • Balance life and work- to enable student to understand life as a worker and how to maintain well-being and other interests, alongside family and community commitments 
  • See the big picture- to help students to understand how the economy, politics and society connect with their lives. 

Alongside the CDI framework we assess ourselves on how well we are meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks. Whilst the students are in our care, they will: 

  • have had meaningful encounters with a range  of employers and educational providers. We hold monthly virtual careers talks 
  • have had tailored support and advice.  
  • linked curriculum learning to career opportunities. We have monthly career starter sessions within subjects so that students understand how their subjects link to their future 
  • have been provided with information about different career pathways, including apprenticeships, entry requirements and costs  
  • have had personal careers advice from a qualified careers advisor who works with us two days a week 
  • experienced a workplace visit in year 10 and year 12 
  • We also plan a variety of events linked to careers throughout the year including mock interview days and workshops
  • The school aims to review our careers provision and information on an annual basis.

The Two Counties Trust provides each school with a qualified careers advisor so that students can have access to advice and guidance when they need it.  It is essential that students have clear plans for the future.  Having a long term career goal provides a real purpose for current learning and education.  

Paula Shanahan (Careers Lead), paula.shanahan@swanwickhall.ttct.co.uk, Swanwick Hall School, 01773 602106

Nicola Stevens (Careers Advisor), Nicola.Stevens@ttct.co.uk

Please click here for our policies and here for The Two Counties Trust policies. 

Career Programme

Staff and Training

All staff have a contribution to make to the careers, employability and enterprise curriculum through their role as employees at Swanwick Hall School. Subject teachers are passionate about the links to their subjects of expertise and the transferable employability skills that our students aim to develop. Students are encouraged to practise and develop these skills throughout the subject curriculums, as well as during specifically targeted activities such as our subject ‘career starter days’ which take place monthly. Support staff also help to play a critical role in delivering activities to students. Our careers programme is planned, monitored and evaluated by the career’s leader and coordinator. The training and support needs of staff involved in co-ordinating, delivering and supporting careers education and IAG are identified and met through a continuing professional development programme, as well as being identified via the monitoring, review and evaluation of the programme.

Information for Parents and Students

At Swanwick Hall, we believe that our young people and parents/carers will need advice, guidance and support in order to effectively plan for the future to ensure positive career choices after leaving us. Parental engagement is an essential part of careers, employability and enterprise education. As such, parents are kept informed and up to date about careers at parents’ evenings, open evenings, throughout the options process as well as any events which take place throughout the school year. Parents are also directed to the careers section of our school website as well as via our communication channels. At the end of each career’s unit, students will complete an evaluation to help inform future planning. Evaluations are also undertaken after any specific career events. The first point of contact for parents/carers and students is their tutors. Tutors are able to support students and signpost appropriate information advice and guidance. Throughout the academic year, there are several opportunities for reflection following release of student reports to allow students to review their strengths and implement next steps.

Open Days: Sixth Forms, Colleges and Training Providers

Careers Open Days 2023

Newsletters

Welcome to the Two Counties Trust first careers newsletter.  Following the recent years of the Covid 19 pandemic we are pleased to say we have completed a full year in school delivering a wide range of Career Guidance across the 9 schools.

To read more about what each school has achieved so far, please download the newsletter below.

Careers Newsletter December 2023

Careers Newsletter July 2023

Careers Newsletter January 2023

Careers Newsletter

Year 10 Work Experience

Year 10 Work Experience Week – Monday 24th to Friday 28th June 2024

All students in Year 10 will undertake one week of Work Experience as part of their entitlement to Work Related Learning which will consist of a mock interview day in school and then a week at their off-site placement with employers. Even though students do not take up their placement until the summer term, we need to secure placements and carry out the necessary checks in advance.

Students are responsible for finding and negotiating their own placement. However, as a school, we recognise the value of Work Experience and will support every child through the process.  A list of available placements can be accessed via the Safety First database http://safetymeasures.work-experience.co.uk and a link is also available on the school website under Curriculum / Careers.  There are over 12000 placements listed and details of how to access the site are:

  • User name: swanwickstudent
  • Password: Swanwick2122# (Note this MUST be a capital S)

Once a student has found a suitable placement, they must make contact with the employer by letter, email or phone and arrange the placement themselves and also receive confirmation that the employer is happy to take them on the placement on the dates above.   It is possible for students to arrange a placement not listed on the database; however, any individually arranged placements, including those in family businesses, must be assessed by the Safety First team before approval is given. If a placement is outside of the specified area then parents/carers may be responsible for covering the cost of any specific H&S check.

All placements must have;

  • A health and safety Policy
  • Employer Liability Insurance
  • Fire extinguishers and fire safety policy (which have been recently tested.)
  • First aid provision

We would encourage parents/carers to support students in the decision making process by discussing the suitability of a range of placements before a final decision is made.

Further information can be downloaded below:

It is important to recognise that no placement is guaranteed until students receive confirmation by the school and the final cut off date for requesting placements is Friday 22nd March 2024 but the earlier students start looking for placements the more chance they will have of securing one at their preferred place of work.

Should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Andrea Hollingsworth, WEX Coordinator, andrea.hollingsworth@swanwickhall.ttct.co.uk or Mrs Watson, Progress and Achievement Manager, kerry.watson@swanwickhall.ttct.co.uk.

All students have now had their Work Experience Launch Assembly and this can be found here