New guidance for boards on providing an effective careers programme
To support governing boards in secondary schools with their responsibility to ensure that young people can make informed choices about their future, the National Governance Association (NGA) has produced guidance in collaboration with the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC).
The guidance says that providing good careers guidance is a fundamental aspect of the board’s service to its community(ies). It explains how a board can meet its statutory duties relating to careers guidance, by supporting and challenging the school or trust to meet the Gatsby Benchmarks – the recognised blueprint for high-quality careers guidance.
Monitoring and evaluating the impact of the careers programme is a crucial part of the board’s role and the new guidance suggests information sources that board’s can draw on the guidance to assess how each benchmark is being met.
A role description for the careers link governor/trustee accompanies the guidance. The statutory guidance states that there should be a member of the governing board who takes a strategic interest in careers, encourages employer engagement.
The release of the guidance comes as findings from NGA’s school governance in 2021 survey show that in developing and monitoring a programme that supports careers advice/education, those governing were most likely to draw on the expertise of the specified senior lead for careers (64%) and to look at the destination of their pupils (62%) while 45% of respondents looked to the Gatsby benchmark and 41% had a link governor/trustee for careers.