Round-up from our November Regional Careers Leaders Network Meeting
Our North East Ambition team were recently joined by more than 140 colleagues from schools and colleges for our once-a-term Regional Careers Leaders Network Meeting.
This latest get together took place at St James’ Park and as ever we were grateful for the energetic and positive atmosphere and high level of commitment to the careers’ agenda from colleagues across the region.
Our guests and speakers inspired and challenged the audience on a wide range of subjects, and we received fantastic feedback from all who attended.
Highlights included a keynote address from Steve Hailstone, Senior Ofsted Inspector for further education and skills in the North East, who took us through the new Education Inspection Framework and what it means for our schools and colleges. We also heard from school and college Careers Leaders who took part in a Q&A panel to share their recent inspection experiences.
Talented year 9 pupils from Norham High School, North Shields joined us for the premiere of a film project they’ve been working on with the North East LEP team, called ‘Our Region, Your Future’.
The pupils spent several weeks researching career opportunities available in the four areas of strategic importance identified in the North East LEP’s Strategic Economic Plan – digital, advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, and energy. The hugely positive and engaging film tells the story of what they discovered.
The film, plus classroom resource packs for Careers Leaders, are now available at northeastambition.co.uk/resources
It was also a pleasure to welcome colleagues from HMRC and Natwest to hear about the huge range of opportunities they offer schools and school leavers right here in our region.
During our afternoon session we were joined by the energetic Andrew ‘Bernie’ Bernard, Director of Innovation and Enterprise for National Careers Week. Bernie is an international and TEDX speaker and inspired our career leaders to sign pledges committing to action during National Careers Week in March 2020.
We also got the chance to introduce our Digital for Growth strategy to our school and college colleagues, gathering some useful feedback around how the education sector can contribute, and support, this critical work.
This was the largest meeting we’ve held to date, which really demonstrates the region-wide commitment to delivering quality careers education in our schools, colleges and universities. We expect the next meeting to take place on Friday, 14 February (TBC) so please hold the date if you'd like to come.
If you'd like to know more about careers education and North East Ambition, please sign up to our opportunities bulletin via the homepage at northeastambition.co.uk or email us via [email protected].
The North East Regional Careers Leaders Network is supported by the European Social Fund through the North East Ambition programme. The North East Ambition programme receives funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.