At The Whitehaven Academy, we pride ourselves on offering our students the best opportunities for their future career, whether this is by progressing onto an apprenticeship, university or straight into a career of their choice. We ensure that our students are given the best possible advice for their future as well as creating opportunities for them to talk to our employer partners and discuss their options with form tutors, Inspira careers advisors, industry mentors or our Careers Lead, Simon Fitzgerald.
Simon Fitzgerald is available at sfitzgerald@whitehavenacademy.org.uk or on 01946 595400.
The Whitehaven Academy Careers Development Plan
Careers education and guidance programmes play a major part in helping young people choose pathways that suit their interests, abilities and individual needs. A robust careers programme helps avoid disengagement, puts school learning into a wider and more relevant context, and helps raise aspirations.
The Careers programme at The Whitehaven Academy helps our students to plan and manage their careers effectively, ensuring progression which is ambitious and aspirational. The focus is upon career and option choice, raising the aspirations and achievement of individual students and equipping them with skills, attitudes, knowledge and understanding as a foundation for managing their lifelong career and learning.
The Whitehaven Academy is committed to providing all students in Years 7- 13 with a programme of careers activities and supporting activity. The programme has been developed in line with the eight Gatsby benchmarks for ensuring best practice and to meet the requirements of the Department for Education’s statutory guidance 2018.
The Gatsby Benchmarks
- A stable careers programme
- Learning from career and labour market information
- Addressing the needs of each student
- Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Encounters with employers and employees
- Experience of workplaces
- Encounters with further and higher education
- Personal guidance
For further information please click on the relevant links below or visit one of the 4 personalised Careers pages linked below.
https://www.practicereasoningtests.com/psychometric-tests/
For further information on financial support for students in years 12 and 13, please visit:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-financial-support-for-students
or https://www.gov.uk/subsidised-college-transport-16-19
For further information on student finance after year 13 (i.e. university), please visit:
https://www.gov.uk/student-finance
For further information on finding a suitable apprenticeship anywhere in the UK, please visit:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship
At The Whitehaven Academy we believe that it is hugely important to support students in making the right choices. We are incredibly proud of the opportunities and courses available here at The Whitehaven Academy. Equally it is important to recognise the offers available in West Cumbria. Beyond Year 11, there are exciting opportunities for young people at Lakes College where students can choose from a wealth of course routes. Please see their website for further details (lcwc.ac.uk) . Similarly Energy Coast offers students a technical based education and run a series of open evenings and outreach work with programmes starting for most students in Year 10 and then again in Year 12 (energycoastutc.co.uk). Finally we are proud of our work in supporting students in securing apprenticeships with technical pathways such as with Gen 2. www.gen2.ac.uk/education/all-apprenticeships.
With so many opportunities and offers available we work closely with the WELL project and Inspira to give students Independent Advice and Guidance for their careers and educational choices. Impartial advice and support is provided by Inspira who run one to one interviews for students in Year 9, Year 11 and Post 16 (inspira.org.uk)
