High quality careers education and guidance in school or college is critical to young people’s futures. It helps to prepare them for the workplace by providing a clear understanding of the world of work including the routes to jobs and careers that they might find engaging and rewarding.
Department for Education Statutory Guidance January 2023
We take real pride in the fact that we have had a Careers Department at Hammersmith Academy since we opened. Ms Sophie Harrowes has been our dedicated Head of Careers since 2013 and is supported by Ms Hafsa Ali as full time Careers Coordinator.
A successful careers programme does more than prepare students for the future, it helps you make the right choices in school and encourages engagement with your studies in order to reach career goals. Good careers guidance should ensure that our students leave HA well-prepared for the outside world, with the employability skills that you need to find success, to realise your potential and to lead a happy life.
Best Practice & Gatsby Benchmarks
Our careers programme is modelled around current best-practice for careers guidance and the Gatsby Benchmarks developed by the Gatsby Foundation have been embedded into our careers work (see our Entitlement Statement for further information). We were a pilot UK school for the Careers & Enterprise Company’s Enterprise Adviser network and are a Careers Development Institute Affiliate School. Above all we value strong partnerships to improve our consistent programme of careers education, including working with independent schools such as St Paul’s and St Paul’s Girls’ School. At the heart of our careers programme is the opportunity to engage regularly with employers to learn from them about careers, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace.
Careers Resources
Our Careers Entitlement Statement and planned Careers Programme for each year group and Careers Calendar can be found here.
Our online Careers Resources for students and parents can be accessed on the HA Careers Sharepoint pages or we strongly encourage students to use your free Unifrog subscription (we pay for this for all year groups, and parents can also access with a free sign up code, please email hali@hammersmithacademy.org if you would like a reminder of the code). It’s an absolute treasure trove of information with guidance on apprenticeships, university, labour market information sources to help you decide which career to follow, and lots more careers material and websites, including how to write a great CV and cover letter.
You can find our useful Careers Library within the school library and up-to-date university prospectus resources in the Sixth Form Centre. There are also lots of useful noticeboards around the academy for ideas and guidance, and and we encourage students in any year group to drop into the Careers Office – our door is always open and if we’re busy we’ll make an appointment to meet another time.
Tailored Advice & Feedback
From the moment you walk through the gate at Hammersmith Academy, you should have a very real sense that we have high ambitions for all our students. Whether you choose to follow an academic, vocational or technical route, we are here to prepare you for future success in the world of work.
Measuring impact and assessing what is working well for our young people helps us continuously improve our careers programme. Feedback from students and parents after events and small group discussion sessions help us understand what’s working, whilst destination data for Year 11 and Year 13 gives us an excellent year group review of outcomes. We even follow up on students after they’ve left if we hear that something’s changed. Best of all, although somewhat less scientific, is the anecdotal evidence when ex-students write to tell us how they’re doing and to let us know what we did to help them get there. It happens surprisingly often, and our alumni regularly return to share their stories and inspire younger students.
Students and parents are always welcome to ask for an appointment to discuss careers, either via your Pastoral Support Officer or direct to the Careers team. We welcome feedback, ideas and offers of support from parents and employers.
Contact
Ms Sophie Harrowes, Head of Careers
sharrowes@hammersmithacademy.org
020 8222 6000
Our careers provision is reviewed annually. The next review date is July 2024.
