Career Mark
Career Mark is a Licensed Awarding Body for the Quality in Careers Standard — the national careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) award.
Career Mark uses five standards to assess the Quality in Careers Standard:
- Management
Measures the effectiveness of your systems for planning, managing and integrating CEIAG
- Guidance
Measures the effectiveness of an integrated programme of advice, guidance and support
- Curriculum
Measures how effectively your curriculum supports the development of learners’ knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes
- Information
Measures the accessibility, relevance, importance and effectiveness of information, the acquisition of skills to research and evaluate to be able to make well-informed and realistic career decisions
- Learner Outcomes
Evaluates learners’ knowledge, competence and attitudes towards career planning
For each standard there are a number of ‘assessment indicators’, which clearly present that standard in its component parts, making it easy for you to identify what’s required.
THE PROCESS
- Audit
Using our self assessment, you can quite quickly see how prepared you are to go through the assessment process. It will help you to get a flavour of what the award is likely to cover and support you to identify where the gaps are in what you are currently doing. - Action
Having completed the self assessment, you may have some work to do in ensuring you have everything in place to meet the award criteria. - Assessment
There are two stages to the assessment process:
Stage 1
Portfolio assessment, using our standards you’ll describe your provision and provide evidence to support this. We’ll assess your portfolio against the standards.
Stage 2
Onsite assessment, we’ll visit you to meet with students and assess the impact of your provision to ensure that what you say in your portfolio is having the impact you desire on the students. - Award
Following the assessment you will receive notification that you have achieved Career Mark. Your award lasts for two years. - Revalidate
Our revalidation process has been designed to complement your first assessment providing a continuous cycle of improvement and development.
Message from Beth Hardy about Career Mark: We are delighted to report that as an Academy we were awarded Career Mark for the second time in January 2021. This is an important award because it recognises our commitment to raising the aspiration of all students and the work we have put in to ensuring that our students have access to the best CEIAG we can provide. Working with Ian Doherty from Prospects our students have access to clear impartial careers advice and we have developed an engaging and challenging curriculum delivered through tutor time that looks to provide up to date information about local careers, training and apprenticeships. Students are encouraged to aim high and consider a variety of future options and then work towards achieving their best in order to have as wide a choice as possible.
We have recently purchased the licence to offer Kudos, an online and interactive programme open to all students to keep records of any careers activity they have participated in; research future careers and higher education options and apprenticeships. This is a fantastic resource and will be available to students in the coming weeks.
If there are any members of our community who feel they could contribute to our ever expanding CEIAG curriculum please feel free to contact Beth Hardy through the Academy website.