It’s no secret that there’s a shortage of qualified (level 6/7) career guidance professionals across England. Over the past few years, schools and colleges have struggled to recruit qualified careers advisers and are starting to explore alternative strategies that will meet their needs. Organisations are recognising the benefits of ‘growing their own’ talent by upskilling existing staff so they can provide a high quality career guidance and development service within their organisation.
The Level 6 Career Development Professional Apprenticeship, delivered by Complete-Careers and Priory Apprenticeships, provides a unique opportunity to acquire the skills and expertise required for one to one personal guidance alongside the knowledge to be an effective Careers Leader. Through this programme, learners gain the Level 6 Diploma in Career Guidance and Development and achieve the specific career leadership units (OCR, Units 17, 19). A significant benefit of the apprenticeship is that it’s effectively free for organisations who pay the Apprenticeship Levy (which is the majority of secondary schools and colleges), making it an attractive cost-saving exercise whilst increasing in-house expertise. Furthermore, our blended learning approach, combining live on-line sessions with (four) face to face training days, appears to offer the flexibility that schools and colleges want.
Back in 2021, Complete Careers recognised a need for this type of hybrid programme and began an intense period of curriculum design and development. This led to successfully recruiting a pilot cohort of learners for a September 2022 start, all of whom are moving swiftly towards their end point assessment and final completion. We’re immensely proud of this 100% retention rate and even more delighted that we have doubled our numbers for our second cohort, seeing 12 learners start with us in September 2023. To top it all, Liane Hambly is now a permanent member of our delivery team, leading on one to one guidance theories and models. Looking ahead to cohort 3 (September 2024 start), we are listening to feedback from our networks and exploring the idea of offering specialist pathways in order to personalise the learning. For example, some prospective learners may have a role that specifically supports their SEND cohort, so may choose to follow a dedicated SEND Pathway by studying the relevant OCR Units (10, 12, 13).
We’ve been on steep learning curve with the Level 6 but we wholeheartedly believe in our overarching aim – to produce world class career guidance and development professionals. We think it’s fair to say that our learners are genuinely enjoying their experience with us…
“The course is so relevant to my role and has made me much more confident and capable!” (cohort 1 learner)
“In a short space of time, I can already see how much my confidence and knowledge has grown. With the help of the tutors, I’m excited to keep developing my skills and to become a great careers guidance professional!” (cohort 2 learner)
If you would like to discuss how the Level 6 Apprenticeship can meet your organisation’s needs, please contact Jo Welch on joanna.welch@complete-careers.com.