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Career Learning – Advice and Support Team (CLAS)
Career Mark 5
What is Career Mark?
Career Mark is a quality standard and development framework for good
practice and provision in CEIAG for young people.
This award is for all learning organisations, including schools, pupil
support centres, colleges and work-based learning providers.
The standards are written by a team of careers education specialists
from Careers Consortium (East Midlands) Limited, representing Derbyshire,
Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.
The standards are constantly revised to reflect national changes in
requirements and developments in good practice. Career Mark 5 is the
latest revision and supports:
- Every Child Matters
- OFSTED self evaluation
- national information, advice and guidance (IAG) standards, and
- links to Matrix.
Why get involved? The Benefits of Career Mark
The current changes to the secondary curriculum emphasises that organisations
need to provide well-managed and well-planned programmes of careers education,
information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) to ensure that their s tudents
develop effective career management skills to make choices and manage transition.
The standards are mapped to the OFSTED self-evaluation form and the
Matrix standards and link to the Every Child Matters outcomes framework.
By engaging with the Career Mark process, schools will demonstrate good
practice in IAG in line with the requirements for the Specialised Diploma
Gateway process and the national IAG standards.
Benefits for learning organisations
- It provides a clear framework for organisations to audit their current
provision against and identify and plan developments to meet the standards.
- It improves provision for young people by demonstrating good practice.
- It brings together complementary provision — CEG, work related
learning (WRL), personal, social and health education (PSHE), citizenship,
and individual target setting.
- Organisations are well prepared for OFSTED and post-16 inspection
frameworks.
- Organisations can demonstrate good practice against the national
IAG standards.
- It provides a framework for continuous improvement.
- It strengthens partnerships with other organisations such as Connexions,
Education Business Partnership (EBP), local employers, other education
providers, parents and other community links.
- Public recognition of good practice.
Benefits for young people
It helps them to:
- recognise the relevance of learning to their futures, increasing
motivation and attainment
- understand their options
- make well informed career decisions, which lead to sustained transitions,
and
- develop lifelong career management skills.
In 2005 the Institute of Career Guidance recognised that quality awards
like Career Mark, help to improve standards nationally. The institution
gave free one-year membership to any organisation, which completed a
quality award.
The Career Mark Framework and Standards
Career Mark 5 is built around a model of integration (see introduction
for diagram), which has lead to the development of five standards of
good practice.
ensures that the planning and management systems
for CEIAG are coherent and effective.
ensures access to a planned programme of advice, guidance, and support.
ensures access to appropriate and relevant information and
the development of information handling skills.
ensures that the careers curriculum is well balanced and supports young
people’s personal development.
evaluates the effectiveness of the CEIAG provision and whether young
people have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be competent career
planners.
Getting involved
If you are interested in using the framework for development or working
towards the award please contact the CLAS team. A local adviser
will explain Career Mark in more detail and support you through the
process.
Guidance Pack
This guidance and good practice guide gives support to those people
involved with Career Mark.
Further materials for sign up, booking assessments and progression certificates
are available from your local adviser.
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