News and Views

A ground-breaking careers guidance partnership in Cumbria has out-performed other areas of England across a range of measures – less than six months after its launch!

The Cumbria Careers Hub was launched in January as a partnership between Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, the Careers and Enterprise Company and 40 local schools and colleges, together with universities, training providers, employers and career professionals.

It was one of only 20 that were piloted in England with the objective of transforming careers education for young people by ensuring they’re better prepared for the world of work.

And latest figures show that it has bettered the average national Careers Hub performance in:

• Establishing a stable careers programme;
• Learning from career and labour market information;
• Linking curriculum learning to careers;
• Delivering encounters with employers and employees;
• Developing experiences of workplaces;
• Securing encounters with further and higher education.

Craig Ivison, Cumbria LEP Head of Employment and Skills, explained: “Cumbria Careers Hub has shown the benefit of bringing employers together with schools and colleges to offer young people across Cumbria insights into the world of work.

“Since its inception, it has been working with Cumbria LEP and supporting schools and colleges in delivering an ambition for world class careers education set out in Cumbria LEP’s Careers Strategy for Cumbria.

“This partnership between employers, schools and colleges has built on excellent practice evident in parts of the county to secure greater consistency and depth in the quality of careers education and guidance and is delivering results.

“I’m particularly pleased to see that performance against two of the benchmarks – encounters with employers and employees and experience of workplaces – is right up there with the best in the country.

“We are looking for more employers to join us to support our young people and schools. Anyone interested is welcome to contact me on 01768 212862 or my colleague Lynsey Parke on 07867 152617.”

Ella Wardleworth-Phillips, North West Regional Lead for the Careers and Enterprise Company, added: “Cumbria Careers Hubs has made excellent progress in the first academic year, delivering through a truly collaborative model. 

“Young people in Cumbria will benefit from the ability to access a range of meaningful encounters and quality careers education.”