Careers Education, supported by personalised information, advice and guidance (known as CEIAG) begins in Key Stage 3 where students are introduced to the world of work through assemblies, PSHE and through curriculum activities. During year 9 students have focused time around Careers and choosing options and in the later years (including 6th Form) help and advice is given to students so that each one is able to make an informed choice about continuing in education, jobs and training. Students will be given the opportunity to attend a Careers Fair and half termly off timetable Personal Development Days allow the students to take part in work and careers related activities.
Being future-ready is entwined into the fabric of our curriculum and pastoral system in all year groups with a focus on developing essential skills through all activities undertaken in the academy. We achieved the Silver Skills Builder Award based on how well we have begun to incorporate essential skills in the life of the academy and to reflect our commitment to developing the whole person, we will continue to make progress to achieve the Gold as we continue to develop our students fully and holistically. Work experience becomes a major focus in Years 10 and 12. In Year 11 and Sixth Form, a robust programme is in place to ensure that students are very well prepared for their next phase of life.
Our Raising Aspirations programme maps the High Performance Learning framework to the essential skills in the Skills Builder framework to help students recognise the employability competencies that they are developing as part of their learning and enrichment activities.
The school works closely with an external and impartial Careers Advisor who visits the academy regularly. In addition to individual interviews and group sessions, the Aspirations Leader, Miss Yasin, offers drop-in lunch time sessions and Careers guidance is available at parents evenings. Students have access to up to date information about their future options in the Careers sections of the Library where leaflets, books, magazines and university prospectuses are available and the School has invested the web based package Unifrog, which can be accessed at home as well as in the Academy: Sign In – Unifrog
A dedicated Careers Leader, Mrs S Yousaf, works across the academy to ensure the quality of our Careers delivery together with a team of Careers Champions – a member of staff in each faculty that focuses on Careers Education focused around their subject area. We have close links with employers such as West Midlands Police, Shakespeare Martineau Law Firm, Aecom and BMW as well as working closely with IntoUniversity, the Universities of Aston, Birmingham, UCB, Oxford and many more.
The Academy openly welcomes providers from HE / FE and Apprenticeships along with employers to visit the academy to talk to students about the opportunities they have. Any organisation wanting to come in to the academy should contact Miss N Yasin, Aspirations Leader on nyasin@hwga.org.uk.
We work closely with The Careers and Enterprise Company, which is part of the Birmingham Education Partnership, to ensure that we are sharing the most up-to-date information with all stakeholders. One of the key areas of interest is labour market information and this can be found here: Labour Market Information – Birmingham Education Partnership (bep.education)
Last year our year 11 pupils moved to range of providers in the local area after school:
Last year our year 13 pupils moved to range of providers, locally and nationally, after school:
100% of students that have chosen to go to university are undertaking an undergraduate degree course, about 8% of those students taking a foundation year route. There is a wide variety of courses taken, including Ancient History, Pharmacy, Optometry, Law, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Science, Digital Marketing, Aerospace Systems Engineering, Social Work, Early Years Education, Primary Education, Interior Architecture and Design, Accounting and Finance, Criminology, Nursing and more.
The higher education institutions that our students have chosen to attend in 2024 are:
