A message and call to action from the Jan Ellis, CEO of the CDI. 

In the last 12 months, there has been considerable talk about skills shortages in the career development sector.

This has ranged from conversations about the lack of qualified careers advisers looking to work in adult guidance and on NCS contracts in England, to a shortage of qualified and registered careers advisers to work in schools and colleges.

We also know from conversations with colleagues in SDS (Scotland) and Careers Wales, attracting careers advisers to train and stay in the sector is an increasing priority.

In England, where the current emphasis is on achieving the Gatsby benchmarks in schools and colleges, the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is looking to invest £2.5M in ‘personal careers guidance’ projects. While this is excellent news for the sector, the CDI would like to see a significant percentage of this investment directed towards the initial training of careers advisers in the form of bursaries, as one way to address the current skills shortage.

We know that our lobbying of DfE, the CEC and government bodies in Wales and Scotland will be much more effective if we are able to provide hard evidence of skills shortages. With this aim in mind we have created a short Survey Monkey; Read more

The CDI has announced the launch of the revised and updated Framework for careers, employability and enterprise education (March 2018). 

The framework can be downloaded from their website. 

This new web page also provides PDF and Word versions of all the supporting documents mentioned in the framework.

The Career Development Institute welcomes the recently published statutory guidance for governing bodies, school leaders and school staff, which we believe represents a major step forward from previous versions; setting out clear expectations for good careers education and guidance.

However, in welcoming the guidance, we suggest four further measures which we believe are needed to facilitate the implementation of the expectations into practice. Further information is contained in the following press release

CDI Press release Statutory Guidance 2018

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The CDI YouTube channel is the place where all their webinars are stored.

So if you have missed a webinar or want to go back over a point you missed or just browse the playlist, then click on the following link https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBUXK40Rz1BpQ-7pH-KjUuoIs2OxeCjh5

The Career Development Institute welcomes the Government’s new careers strategy but is disappointed about the lack of support for impartial careers guidance. The strategy includes several measures to improve the careers support for young people in schools and colleges, but it falls short of the ambitions set out by the former Minister responsible for careers, Robert Halfon, to bring greater coherence across the age range and to provide lifelong careers support.

The CDI welcomes the expectations that all schools and colleges should:

• use the Gatsby benchmarks to review and plan their careers programmes
• publish details of their careers programme on their website
• have a named Careers Leader
• work towards the updated Quality in Careers Standard.

During the past two years the CDI have made a number of recommendations to the DfE and are pleased that some of these have been picked up in the strategy. The Careers & Enterprise Company is to be given a broader remit, to provide support to schools across all eight benchmarks, not just the two that focus on engaging with employers. £5M is to be invested in 20 ‘careers hubs’ to extend the good practice developed through the Gatsby pilot in the North East LEP to other areas of the country, £4M is to be made available to fund training for careers leaders in schools and colleges and a further £2M will be spent on projects to test best practice in primary schools and in work with young people with special educational needs and disabilities. And, not before time, a new National Careers Service website will be developed next year. Read more

The CDI Annual Conference 2017 attracted a range of highly knowledgeable keynote speakers to bring delegates an innovative and informative programme.

The presentations for each are available to download on the  CDI Website

The Career Development Institute welcomes the Government’s new careers strategy but is disappointed about the lack of support for impartial careers guidance

Two years ago the then Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, acknowledged that the school-based approach to careers guidance was not working effectively for all young people and announced that the Government would be publishing a strategy for improving careers guidance in schools. In January of this year the Government re-stated its intention to publish a comprehensive careers strategy later in the year. The Minister now responsible for careers, Anne Milton, launched the long awaited strategy today at the CDI’s annual conference in Solihull.

The CDI is pleased to see that the strategy picks up several of the points that we have been recommending. It sets out a ‘platform for change’ that should lead to significant improvements in careers education and guidance in schools. The strategy endorses fully the eight benchmarks of good practice developed by the Gatsby Foundation and provides funding to extend the current successful pilot in the North East to twenty more areas of the country. This should help us move towards the CDI’s goal of funded support across the whole of England.

Read more

The CDI Board is seeking to enhance and strengthen its expertise by formally appointing up to TWO individuals as Directors. 

Candidates with some or all of the following areas of expertise – financial acumen and experience; adult guidance; career coaching and consultancy/private sector knowledge, will be particularly welcomed.

Applicants can access further information on the role of a CDI Director and an application form by clicking on the following links:

The closing date for receipt of application forms: 16.00 on Friday 10th November 2017

To Find Out More Visit: www.thecdi.net 

In the CDI response to the Green Paper, they state that:

• We agree with the analysis in the Green Paper that the proposed improvements to the education and skills system must be supported by high quality careers provision but that current information, advice and guidance continues to be patchy and inconsistent – not only in schools but also for adults.
• We strongly agree that the quality of careers information, advice and guidance must be higher.
• The removal of a national service, delivered locally, has resulted in the current patchy and inconsistent provision. T

To read the full response Click Here

To view the latest newsletter from Careers England Click Here