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This National Careers Week sees Nottingham Building Society launch its flagship employability programme, Career Academy, to support 16 to 18-year-olds as they build key life skills through meaningful interventions that will help to prepare them for the world of work.
Supported by community engagement specialists EVERFI, the brand-new resources further develop The Nottingham’s existing employability activity with the aim of helping young people fulfil their potential by igniting their future career ambitions. EVERFI is an international technology company driving social impact through education.
As a result of the societal challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, employers, teachers, and other educators had to quickly adapt and incorporate new and flexible styles of careers learning and delivery to minimise disruption to their educational experience. Against this challenging backdrop The Nottingham sharpened their focus on providing young people with meaningful educational interventions to enhance their knowledge of the world of work.
With Career Academy, the Nottingham Building Society has developed a catalogue of online, downloadable resources for educators which follow the Gatsby benchmarks and are linked to the PSHE Association’s programme of study. They include a video shot entirely on location in Nottingham charting the journey from education to employment of 17-year-old Sabina, who wants to work in IT.
Following a successful project pilot from mid-September 2021, the full resource suite is now available for free to schools across England in time for National Careers Week. The materials, which contain lessons aligned to the curriculum that teachers can choose from to suit student needs, are based on the following five areas:
- Navigation: “I know how to find out about work”
- Practice: “I can experience what being at work is like”
- Skills: “I have the skills employers want”
- Networking: “I can get ideas from different people”
- Reflecting: “I understand why an employer might value me”
Teachers who have taken part in the pilot to date have shared that: “Students learnt a lot about themselves in the content. It allowed them to think about how their own personality and skills align with different employers and what employability skills different industries are looking for.”
Another teacher praised the resources adding that: “The worksheets provided are an excellent resource to get students thinking about their futures and reflect on the industry which would best suit them,” with a further teacher highlighting that “where students had a career but no plan to it, they have now investigated a route and had the inspiration to research this further.”
As part of The Nottingham’s ongoing focus in driving awareness and developing students’ skills into future careers, May 2022 will see recently appointed CEO Sue Hayes host an exclusive ‘A Day in The Life of a CEO’ Q&A session for one winning school. The winning educational establishment will be selected at random from those who have registered for the Career Academy online.
Sue Hayes, most recently chief executive of GB Bank, says: “We’re delighted to mark this year’s National Careers Week with the launch of Career Academy, our flagship employability programme.
“It’s our aim to help prepare young people for the world of work and, looking at the positive feedback we’ve received from educators to date from our pilot, we’re well placed to continue supporting employability and financial capability during these challenging times – with the hope of building brighter futures for youngsters.
“Young people have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic so our current focus on supporting them to fulfil their potential by igniting their future career ambitions is something close to my heart. Through my upcoming student Q&A session I’m excited about the opportunity to share practical insights to inspire the next generation of brilliant young minds.”
Teachers can register to the Career Academy here for the chance to win an exclusive Q&A class session and discover the range of free curriculum-linked resources for their school.
