National Careers Week 2024: Why employment needs to be every educator's business, all of the time.

nasen – the National Association for Special Educational Needs (SEND) – the leading charity that exists to support and champion those working with, and for, children and young people with SEND and learning differences, is calling on the education community to mark National Careers Week (4-9 March 2024) by helping to light the way to brighter futures for their learners.

As educators, we’re constantly striving to prepare the young people we work with for their next steps – from the earliest years in nursery or primary school all the way through to the final days in further or higher education.

It’s often easy to think of these next steps as being limited to the transitions from one year, phase or setting to the next, and indeed all of these critical milestones – and the way that they are managed –  do help to shape the social, emotional and personal development of a young person.

But one aspect of our ‘preparation’ transcends all phases, ages and stages and is something we all need to make part of our day-to-day business, and that is preparation for what lies beyond the school gates: adulthood.

Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) is a particularly hot topic in the SEND world right now, not least because it’s the focus of a series of in-depth reviews being carried out by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.

For many children and young people with SEND, getting a job is a huge ambition for adulthood. Supporting this – and setting goals around work from the earliest years – is crucial. Statistics tells us that people who have a disability are disadvantaged and under-represented in the employment market. In fact, only 4.8% of adults with a learning disability are in paid employment[1], despite the fact that 86% of adults with a learning disability who don’t have a paid job would like one[2].

Amanda Wright, Head of the Whole School SEND consortium, which is hosted by nasen, welcomes the work that is being done in schools to make employment for all a reality. She says: “Twenty years ago, we might have found that ‘careers’ was hardly thought about at primary school, and was the sole responsibility of one teacher in most secondary schools. Given the starkness of today’s data, and our deeper understanding of the many positives that the right career choice can bring to an individual, we can be justifiably relieved that this attitude has evolved.

“We now understand the importance of exposing children to a variety of professions and career options from a young age, helping them to develop a sense of curiosity and allowing them to make informed decisions about their interests and aspirations as they progress through their education.

“By offering age-appropriate tasks and activities that mimic the world of work, we can help children develop their confidence and foster a positive self-image. We are also aware of the importance of helping learners embrace challenges, learn from set-backs and work on developing new skills that will help build resilience and achieve their aspirations.

“It might not be something that we consider often, but our efforts to empower and enable learners as they begin to move towards a life beyond our classrooms is key in ensuring a future generation that is happy and fulfilled and makes a full contribution to their communities.”

Later this month, the theme of school-to-career transitions will be explored in greater depth in a two-part webinar from Whole School SEND, in partnership with DFN Project Search and BASE (The British Association for Supported Employment).

The sessions, which encourage a sustained focus on employment as an important element of PfA are suitable for practitioners across all phases of education and will address:

• What the data tells us about employment
• Why employment should be for all
• The major benefits – including health benefits – of being in employment
• The key principles of supported employment
• An overview of employment pathways
• An introduction to the Internships Work programme
• The role of an education setting in supporting a young person in their employment journey, how this aligns to Ofsted, and ways in which to overcome barriers to employment for young people.

The series is free to attend, thanks to funding from the Department for Education as part of the Universal SEND Services programme, and is part of a wider range of PfA-related CPD available through nasen.

Register for the webinar series now: https://www.wholeschoolsend.org.uk/events/their-future-our-hands-part-one

Explore nasen’s other PfA-related CPD: https://nasen.org.uk/news/preparation-for-adulthood-PFAEY

ENDS

[1]Employment Rates for People with Disabilities 2021-22 | British Association for Supported Employment (base-uk.org)

[2] Mencap urges more employers to recruit people with a learning disability | Mencap