Thank you to those able to make it to our last EA Network Focus meeting.
Our focus for this meeting was social mobility, and David Rodda one of our esteemed EAs presented a piece of work that he was part of. Read on for a full recorded video of the meeting as well as key information related to this agenda.
These are the types of questions we asked during the meeting. Whilst there has been an increase in the level of people receiving paid employment with a higher living-wage salary, low social mobility according to the data has not changed. Why is that and what can we do?
Social mobility is the link between a person’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents. Where there is a strong link, there is a lower level of social mobility. Where there is a weak link, there is a higher level of social mobility. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/social-mobility-commission/about
Carrie presented a wider context on the social mobility agenda, and below you will find some headline stats taken from a recent report by the Social Mobility Commission called the State of the Nation 2021.
The report also provides findings from across the devolved nations. Further to this, the Commission has outlined seven key pillars for recovery with detailed recommendations covering: geography and local power; poverty and living standards; early years; education; apprenticeships and adult skills; digital access; and work and career progression. Below you will find a link to the full report along with the recommendations.
(full context on the above is within the video)
The importance of impartial careers education information advice and guidance (IAG) is just one way to address the gap in low social mobility. Young people in schools should be entitled to an interview before year 11, but the recent statutory guidance from the DfE has suggested more should be done to offer this to more year groups.
The CDI (Careers Development Institute) which is the key organisation that supports the development of Careers Leaders has provided a short video from David Morgan, CEO of the CDI who shares his experience of receiving careers guidance.
Evaluation and data are key tools for our Schools to be able to help identify the gaps and to develop strategies to overcome them.
Engaging parents is one endeavour that all schools are aware of and wish to address, but developing a strategy with effective time and resources has so far proved quite challenging and the issues have not been met.
The CEC has recently worked with the Gatsby Foundation to provide a toolkit for schools to help improve parental engagement in Careers Education.
The CEC has launched the Future Skills Survey that aims to use students’ responses to the questionnaire to:
The questionnaire is administered from the Compass+ platform, with students’ questionnaire responses appended to their individual profiles.
Please do find the time to watch the full video and please contact your Enterprise Coordinator or Carrie with any thoughts on the agenda.
If you wish to know how we’re communicating with Careers Leaders, here’s the latest October newsletter:
Destinations, Evaluation, Social Mobility and Social Justice – https://mailchi.mp/cb354105f8d9/destinations-evaluation-social-mobility-and-social-justice
Date of next meeting: Thursday 28th October at 10 am. Network DROP-IN