Careers education is an important part of a young person's development. At Hartshill Academy, we are committed to ensuring that the academy has a strong careers programme that supports our pupils from Year 7 until Year 11. We help our pupils to make well informed decisions about their next steps and provide impartial advice and guidance.  

Careers programme 

Our careers programme is developed in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks. As part of our careers programme, we offer the following: 

• All pupils in Years 7-11 access a programme of lessons within the HART programme, which focus on different aspects of careers and employability skills.
• All pupils complete a Future Skills Questionnaire to help us identify several career sectors they are interested in, so we  can direct opportunities to genuine interests.
• All pupils will have at least one ‘Employer Encounter’ during each year. These include visits to the Big Bang Fair, the Warwickshire Skills Show, mock interviews with local employers, and our careers fair. We also link these employer encounters to our curriculum, with experts in science, sport, languages and other subjects coming to the academy to hold activities, workshops, and assemblies.
• Access to online resources to support careers development and provide easy access to labour market information such as icould.com and The National Careers Service, helping pupils to research careers independently and get an idea of how to get where they want to be.
• We offer access to local and national businesses and employers, further and higher education providers, and apprenticeship providers to deliver aspirational and informative talks each year to give pupils a broad and varied idea of the opportunities available to them when they leave school.
• In Year 10 and 11, every pupil will have a 1:1 guidance interview with our Careers Leader. Pupils and parents / carers are also free to make ad hoc appointments here (provide link) to speak to our careers leader at any time of year and regardless of which year group they are in.
• We promote access to a wide range of career information and actively challenge traditional stereotypes, encouraging our young people to break barriers and let nothing hold them back from achieving their career goals.
• We encourage the development of work ready skills through our curriculum and extracurricular activities. 
• Each year, all of our Year 10 pupils will complete a one-week work experience placement outside of school. During this placement, they will have the opportunity to experience the world of work first-hand, develop essential employability skills, and gain valuable experience that they can include on their CV.

·   Our careers leader, Sam Clark, is available to support with general advice or more specific guidance. He can be contacted on samuel.clark@hartshillacademy.org.uk