Careers Overview

The Gatsby benchmarks were introduced in 2013 to support the delivery of good Careers education. There are 8 of them in total, they are:

1.  A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance

At Lakelands Academy we ensure our provision is the best it can be by engaging with a variety of employers from different sectors across the Marches area; ranging from AICO, NHS, Perspective Wealth Management, The Military and a variety of local self-employed creative business owners.

We ensure that students are aware of all pathways available to them by highlighting the importance and availability of apprenticeship providers such as SBC Training and County Training. We engage with universities (e,g. Wrexham University and Harper Adams University), so that students are fully aware of the routes they offer and what they can lead too, understanding how these could benefit them and their chosen career path. We monitor this via a range of measures which include, completion of the Future Skills Questionnaire in Years 7,9 and 11 as well as working with the Shropshire Council Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) Team to monitor on our Year 11 intentions and destinations.  

As well as being our Careers Lead, Mrs V Wilkinson is also our in-house, independent, impartial, Level 6 qualified Careers Adviser who carries out our 1:1 careers guidance interviews. This means she is well placed to interface with parents as well as students at parent and information evenings as well as providing support and guidance as required.

We consistently achieve very positively against all benchmarks this is measured on Compass+ termly with our Enterprise Advisor. Regularly, 98% of Lakelands Academy students move on to appropriate destinations post-16. This demonstrates that our caring and nurturing approach to careers provision across all subjects, and during our career focus sessions, leaves our students feeling empowered and ready to make their next steps. We are extremely proud of what this means for our school leavers.

Lakelands Academy Compass+ Report (Gatsby Benchmark performance)