Careers Hubs, at the core of careers education

We hear from Kelvin Nash, about how Careers Hubs play such a pivotal role in preparing young people for their best next step.

I write this not as a declared expert, but as the Principal of Kendal College, the Chair of the Cumbria Careers Hub, and more importantly as someone who is interested in securing a better future for our young people.

As the Principal of a college I have seen the importance of supporting our young people, and how helping them find their way onto that vital next step and into their future has become more important than ever.

Careers education through the work of the Careers Hub and the work they do with Careers Leaders, employers and Enterprise Advisers all play an important part in giving young people possibility; the possibility of seeing and being part of a future that they may never have thought achievable.

No organisation, including the college, can work in isolation. The Careers Hub joins the dots between education and businesses across the region, and being part of the Careers Hub and the network surrounding it has been invaluable in supporting the work that Kendal College does. Through this network Kendal College has empowered its Careers Leads and curriculum staff to involve a range of employers more in content design, giving learners the opportunity to put what they are learning in the classroom into a more practical context through targeted work placements.

If you consider that over half of the schools and colleges in the UK are part of a Careers Hub, just think how many other stakeholders are also involved? Imagine how many employers, jobs and opportunities a Careers Hub is able to present to our country’s young people? Careers Hubs give young people access to a network of employment options and support, by bringing within their grasp more relevant and meaningful encounters with employers.

I have worked with the Careers Hub in Cumbria since its inception and, as the evidence shows, the longer colleges and schools are part of a Careers Hubs, the better they perform. In Cumbria we work with 45 schools and colleges across the county, helping somewhere around 30,000 young people. The sharing of information and learning from each other has resulted in the college devising a careers programme that gives young people a broader experience.

Every young person at Kendal College, across Cumbria, and indeed from across the country deserves to have the best start possible to their working life. Careers Hubs across England are, right now, helping to make this a reality.

This article first appeared in our recent Trends in Careers Education report. Read more about how schools and colleges prepared their students for the world of work last year in Trends in Careers Education.