Get Ready for National Careers Week 2021!

Monday 1st to Saturday 6th March 2021

 

The 10th annual National Careers Week 2021 is being held during 1st to 6th March 2021. It is a celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. The aim is to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar to help support young people leaving education.

For a range of resources and activities, please click here.

Please also take a look at our Job of the Week for further information and details about individual career pathways.

National Careers Week

Easy resources to help you run an effective NCW

It's the tenth annual National Careers Week - this year's theme is Empowering Positive Change through Careers Education. We've brought together some resources for each day of the week to help you continue careers learning, lockdown style. Each set of resources is complete with easy tasks you can set your students.

MONDAY: How to become...

Our "How to become" section is full of job profiles and other guides to help your students explore different careers paths and the skills, qualifications and experience needed to get there, as well as what to expect from the profession when they do.

Task: Ask your students to research three careers they are interested in and develop a five-step plan on how they could start pursuing each of these career paths now.

TUESDAY: Employability skills

Employers value key skills like teamwork, communication and problem solving but many graduates and school/college leavers lack these. Your students can get ahead by understanding how to develop these skills while still at school/college so that they can make successful applications even when they are up against more experienced candidates

Task: Ask your students to research an employability skill required in one of jobs they researched in Monday's task, and come up with three ways they will develop that skill at school/college.

WEDNESDAY: Careers action plan

Last year, we created a careers actions plan students could use to map out their plan for careers development in lockdown. This year, students are returning to school as we gradually come out of lockdown, but this action plan is still a useful tool to help your students plan for their futures in a structured way. You can find it under item 1 on our coronavirus resources page.

Task: Get your students to download and complete a careers action plan ready for the summer term. Note: the action plan references 2020 but this can simply be amended to say "2021".

 

THURSDAY: Industry spotlights

Our industry spotlight series looks at a number of industries in depth, highlighting future trends, job opportunities available within these industries and pathways from education to employment in each sector. You can find them under item 2 on our coronavirus resources page.

Task: Ask your students to pick one of these industry spotlights to read. Get them to make notes and complete the worksheet provided with the industry spotlight. 

FRIDAY: Crisis Careers Heroes

Last spring, we ran a campaign highlighting some of the amazing people who are often undervalued in our society but whose work was vital to getting us through the pandemic - from nurses, teachers and homeless support workers to cleaners, postal workers and HGV drivers. You can find all the information on this page.

Task: Ask your students to focus on one of the five areas highlighted in our series. Encourage them to reflect on what kinds of jobs are socially beneficial and why pursuing such a career might provide personal fulfilment.

 

As more students return to the classroom, we hope National Careers Week this week and International Women’s Day and British Science Week next week are a chance to bring careers back to the fore to motivate young people and connect them with their futures and the relevance of their education.

Getting the chance to hear from a diverse range of volunteers from the world of work can also help with students' social-emotional learning as volunteers talk about how they have overcome challenges and setbacks along the way. Inspiring the Future has a huge range of volunteers available to support virtual activities and to get started we've prepared some recorded materials. 

Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8th March, we’ve interviewed two of our pioneering women volunteers who are part of Inspiring the Future. Rhoda and Claire demonstrate that anyone can pursue their passion regardless of their gender or background, and for students that pursuit can start now with building skills. Discussion and follow-up activities are built into the videos. Suitable as a timetabled session or for home learning.

 

Post 16 Pathways into STEM

For National Careers Week we hosted ‘Pathways into STEM’ live panel events with different volunteers that work in nuclear, aerospace, horticulture, energy, finance, TV & more. Each has a unique story about their pathway & journey, reminding students that there is no one career path & that they can shape their own.

If you missed the live events, register for a recording and timetable a session or pass them on to students to watch in their own time.

 

Ahead of National Careers Week 2021 PwC wanted to reach out and take this opportunity to highlight some of the great opportunities they have for students considering their next steps.   Are you passionate about accounting, business, and technology? Virtual Insight Week applications are now open. This programme is for students in Year 12 in England and gives students the chance to gain new experiences, skills and confidence, as they take their first steps towards their career. Applications close on Sunday 14 March.

Explore PwC's Virtual Insight Week

Are you in their final year of school and still deciding what to do this autumn? School and College Leaver opportunities give students the chance to earn while they learn, and start their career straight from school. Apply now to avoid missing out.

Click for School & College Leaver opportunities

For students looking for application process guidance The latest instalment of the Virtual Classroom a programme open to students between Years 10 and 13 is now available. This month will be focused on opportunities at PwC and the application process.

Sign up to PwC's Virtual Classroom

For any additional resources for the classroom or homeschooling, please explore the Supporting a Student page.   National Careers Week is coming up from 1st – 6th March 2021. As a result, the University of Leicester have created a digital playlist for students. It contains insights from academics and student ambassadors, graduate success stories, a look into careers in mental health, medicine and law as well as general guidance on interviews and transferable skills. They also have two live webinars that are available to book now! CVs: The Basics Webinar  Thursday 4 March  12:30pm This informal webinar will help to understand how to create an effective UK style CV (or Résumé) and how to avoid some of the common mistakes! Book with the pin SsrZ   Shape your future: Careers support at Leicester Friday 5 March  12:30pm This informal webinar will help to understand the careers support that students will have access to at Leicester. Book with the pin rUfo   Just a reminder that the Let's Pitch It competition deadline is next Friday 19th March! There have been some great submissions already but we would love to see more!! Baasit is in the process of recording some videos answering some of the questions we didn't get to ask at the launch event and we will share the links for these videos as soon as we have them. Let's Pitch It Flipgrid page (all resources are on here): https://flipgrid.com/b394d460 Let's Pitch It launch recording.