Our Vision for Careers and Employability
At Bluecoat Beechdale Academy our careers and employability vision is to ensure all students develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes which enable them to make aspirational, realistic and informed choices about their futures and that prepare them fully for further study and the world of work.
The Objectives
The careers and employability strategy will:
- Aid social mobility by providing the careers and employability skills, knowledge, experience, advice and guidance that students require.
- Ensure that every child develops the knowledge and skills required to succeed in the most aspirational pathway for them.
- Inspire students in order to raise academic achievement.
- Provide students with knowledge of all futures pathways and apprenticeships.
- Equip students with, and provide evidence of, the skills needed to succeed in their future pathways and prepare students for jobs that may not yet exist.
- Provide all students with experiences of employers and workplaces.
- Allow students multiple opportunities to engage with further and higher education providers.
- Provide students with knowledge of the local labour market and opportunities within growth sectors.
- Deliver a curriculum that offers appropriate qualifications which prepare students for further study and employment.
- Embed work related learning within subject areas.
- Ensure students have quality advice and guidance at key points of transition.
Contact
Our Careers Lead is Mrs T White – Assistant Principal for Personal Development.
For any careers queries, please email twhite@bluecoatbeechdale.uk.com
At Bluecoat Beechdale Academy we are committed to developing the top ten employability skills:
Each year, Archway trust hold their annual Careers Fair at Bluecoat Aspley Academy, for all students in year 10. This is a hugely successful event and gives students the opportunity to meet with a range of employers and providers of further education, from across the region.
Where are most jobs in the EAST Midlands now?
Wholesale and Retail
Health and Social Care
Manufacturing
Education
Administration
Where will there be an increase in jobs in the East Midlands?
Construction
Wholesale and retail
Health and Social Care
Transport and Storage
Science and Technology
Manufacturing
Use the widget below to be used to explore and compare key information about occupations help of learn about different occupations and identify potential careers.
It provides access to a selection of UK headline data relating to pay, weekly hours of work and future employment prospects for different occupations, as well as description of the occupation.
Simply type in the title of the job you are interested in and the widget provides a series of options from which you can select the most relevant to you. You can then look up another two occupations and compare. You can also select ‘display the UK average’ and compare the information with the occupation you have selected.
Into University Programme is designed to raise the aspirations students and includes visits to universities and career focused sessions. There are also visits to workplaces and in the past few years these have included: East Midlands Airport, Capital One, Inland Revenue and Siemens.
Visits to DHL at East Midlands Airport, to learn about Logistics and associated careers.
Visits to Capital One, to gain experience of CV writing and making successful job applications.
Scholar’s scheme: The Brilliant Club gives high achieving students the opportunity to work with a top university lecturer to complete a module at university level – the launch event takes place at Cambridge University.
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC): Students get the opportunity to work with the RSC to put on a production at our academy.
DANCOP: Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Collaborative Outreach Partnership is a regional organization in the UK comprised of Universities and Colleges that work together to support young people—particularly those from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds—in exploring higher education, career options, and their future pathways. The partnership is part of the national Uni Connect Programme funded by the Office for Students (OfS).
The Army: the Army deliver workshops during a selection of our ‘Drop down Days’ and also run their Elite Skills Training with our year 9 students.
Nottingham Forest: Nottingham Forest Foundation works with us to deliver exciting, high-quality programmes that combine education with the power of football. These aim to boost confidence, improve wellbeing and enable students to explore the huge range of careers within the sport industry.
Talk The Talk: This programme is designed to help students to develop their oracy and communication skills and is offered to students in year 9.
Nottingham Trent University: Nottingham Trent University deliver assemblies and workshops to students across yr7-11, with campus visits for yr8 students. These aim to widen participation to University.
Nottingham College: Nottingham College deliver a range of assemblies to various year groups, to highlight the range of post 16 options open to them. This is in addition to Campus Visits for students in year 11.
National Apprenticeship Week: During National Apprenticeships week, students learn about relevant apprenticeships within each subject area, which is in addition to learning about apprenticeships in our tutor time careers curriculum. In the section on National Careers Week, replace the sentence with: National Careers Week: Our careers notice board is updated with events associated with National Careers Week.
National Careers Week: during this week all students receive careers based lessons delivered in PSHE and in all curriculum areas organised by our careers subject leaders.
All year 10 students attend our annual careers fair which has a range of stands from educators and employers. All year 10 students also participate in a week of work experience.
At the year 11 progress evening further education providers are present to give advice and outline the courses that they offer.
All students in Y7-Y11 use the online careers website Unifrog as part of their career and employability journey at Bluecoat Beechdale Academy. They can access this, including their own personal area, from in school or at home.
Unifrog is a careers website with a comprehensive range of resources for all ages. It is easy to use and students have their own login which means that they can upload and save resources on to the site which can be accessed from anywhere.
Use the link below to search for apprenticeships:
https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch
What is an apprenticeship?
Get paid to discover your passion! You can become anything you want!
An Apprenticeship is a job which allows you to earn while you learn. You receive a wage and study alongside each other, which eventually leads to qualifications and progression within your chosen industry.
With an Apprenticeship you will:
– Work alongside experienced staff
– Gain job-specific skills
– Earn a wage and get holiday pay
– Be given time for study related to their role (the equivalent of one day a week)
Below is a list of careers websites with descriptions of how you may find them useful.
National Careers & Apprenticeship Services
Careers advice – job profiles, information and resources | National Careers Service
– This is a free service provided by the Department for Education.
https://www.gov.uk/topic/further-education-skills/apprenticeships
– The National Apprenticeship Service website provides general advice and information about apprenticeships. It also advertises current vacancies.
Other websites
– This website aims to help you to make the most of your potential by showing how others have used theirs, take the ‘Buzz’ personality profile quiz.
– Investigate careers, watch videos and get great advice, find out about employers and work experience opportunities in your area.
– This provides video based job profile information and a skills explorer tool.
– This website gives clear and comprehensive information about a range of Career Zones (sectors), in an easy to access format. You can create a profile to help to collate useful information. ’60 second interviews’ giving profiles of professionals, provide a useful insight into specific careers.
– This is an interactive careers website which provides a ‘careers matching’ programme to help with career choice (log in for a free guest pass).
– Look at this website for opportunities that exist outside of university.
– Explore this website to find out information about university courses on offer and also the Stamford test to help with ideas about subjects to study.
– This website represents 24 leading universities and is a source of careers information & advice including ‘informed choices’, a downloadable guide to making post 16 choices.
– Find out which areas you could access after a particular degree.
– This site has useful videos, demonstrating how to complete the online applications for many top companies in the UK, as well as providing detailed information on salaries and interviews. Applications forms can be printed off directly from this site.
www.allaboutschoolleavers.co.uk
– This website displays current apprenticeship and school leaver programme opportunities, to the latest school leaver job news, and gives career journey advice.
www.allAboutApprenticeships.co.uk
– This website gives live apprenticeship vacancies, organised by sector or area. It also gives plenty of advice on making applications.
The Careers Mark is a National Quality Award used by schools and colleges in the UK to prove they provide excellent careers education, information, advice, and guidance (CEIAG). In July 2026, Bluecoat Beechdale Academy successfully achieved this Quality Award for the second time, which is an excellent achievement and recognises the quality and breadth of our careers provision.
