Introductory description

Participants will draw on theories of career development, learning, and leadership, labour market information, policy frameworks, and good practice guides, to critically evaluate their school or college career education and guidance programme and plan and implement continuous improvement to meet the needs of all stakeholders, including students, citizens, trade unions, community groups, and employers.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The context for school and college career education and guidance programmes.
Exploration of the relationships between career development and learning (e.g. formal and informal contexts).
Selected theories of career development, learning, and leadership/management.
Quality standards for careers programmes (e.g. Gatsby Benchmarks).
Learning from career and labour market information (e.g. education and employment routes for leavers including employment, apprenticeships, T levels, A levels, BTEC, degrees).
Relevant policies and frameworks (e.g. Careers & Enterprise Company guidance, statutory guidance).
The key roles and attributes of career leadership (e.g. management, coordination, networking, quality assurance, long-term thinking, clarity).
Career education and guidance programme design, concept mapping, and negotiation.
Topics (e.g. career influences, behaviours, decisions, styles, cycles, stories).
Roles, responsibilities, and relationships (e.g. teacher, student, employee).
Creation of learning outcomes for career education and guidance.
Linking curriculum learning to career education and guidance.
Learning encounters with employers and employees.
Learning experiences of workplaces.
Learning encounters with further and higher education providers.
Learning from personal career guidance.
Assessment of learning outcomes and systemic evaluation.
Ethics and values in school and college careers provision (e.g. equality, diversity, and differentiation).
Modes of reflective practice (e.g. experiential learning).
Use of the above to inform and enhance a career education and guidance programme in the school and college context.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Systematically identify the following areas of knowledge relating to leading an embedded programme of career education and guidance programme: quality standards for careers programmes (e.g. Gatsby Benchmarks); career and labour market information (e.g. education and employment routes for leavers including employment, apprenticeships, T levels, A levels, BTEC, degrees); relevant policies and frameworks (e.g. Careers & Enterprise Company guidance, statutory guidance); the key roles and attributes of career leadership.
• Discuss and critically analyse relevant standards, policies, and frameworks for practice.
• Carefully analyse the role of careers leader and other relevant roles within the school or college.
• Critically evaluate a programme of career education and guidance in the light of the knowledge identified above.
• Creatively apply the knowledge listed above to design and deliver an embedded programme of career education and guidance (e.g. aims, learning outcomes, activities, assessment).
• Systematically use the knowledge listed above to continually evaluate, revise, and enhance an embedded programme of career education and guidance programme.
• Comprehensively describe key concepts derived from theories of career development, learning, and leadership/management, relating to leading an embedded programme of career education and guidance.

Indicative reading list

Amundsen, C., Weston, C. & McAlpine, L. (2008) Concept mapping to support university academics' analysis of course content, Studies in Higher Education, 33 (6): 633-652.
Andrews, D. & Hooley, T. (2018) The careers leader handbook: How to create an outstanding careers programme for your school or college, Bath: Trotman.
Biggs, J. (1996) Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment, Higher Education, 32 (3): 347¬364).
Careers & Enterprise Company and Gatsby Charitable Foundation (2018) Understanding the role of the careers leader: A guide for secondary schools, London: Careers & Enterprise Company.
English, F.W. (2015) The SAGE guide to educational leadership and management, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Illeris, K. (Ed.) (2009) Contemporary theories of learning, Abingdon: Routledge.
Jordan, A., Carlile, 0. & Stack, A. (2008) Approaches to learning: A guide for teachers, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Northedge, A. (2003) Enabling participation in academic discourse, Teaching in Higher Education, 8 (2): 169-180.
Patton, W. & McMahon, M. (2014) Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice (3rd edition), Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense.
Praslova, L. (2010) Adaptation of Kirkpatrick's four level model of training criteria to assessment of learning outcomes and program evaluation in higher education, Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 22 (3): 215-225.
Rogers, D. T. (2009) The working alliance in teaching and learning: Theoretical clarity and research implications, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3 (2): 1-9.
Salmon. G. (2013) E-tivities: The key to active on-line learning (2nd ed.), New York: Routledge.
Simon, R.I., Dippo, D. & Schenke, A. (1991) Learning work: A critical pedagogy of work education, New York, NY: Bergin and Garvey.
Taylor, E.W. & Cranton, P. (2012) The handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
VT Group, the Association for Careers Education and Guidance and Youth Access (2010) Careers education framework 7-19 statutory guidance: Impartial careers education, London: Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Subject specific skills

NEEDED

Transferable skills

NEEDED