Careers
The Careers Team
Careers Leader
Reshma Patel – RPatel@thequestacademy.org.uk, 0208 657 8935
Careers Coordinator
Melba D’Mello – MDMello@thequestacademy.org.uk
Quest’s Careers Programme
The landscape of education, training, and employment opportunities faced by students today is complex, challenging and ever-changing. Careers guidance in schools is vital in supporting students with making informed decisions about their education and career.
At The Quest Academy we are dedicated to providing a comprehensive programme of careers education for all students in Years 7-13, providing information, advice and guidance in partnership with the Local Authority and external providers. We are committed to ensuring our students leave the Academy with the knowledge and skills required to make realistic career decisions whilst maintaining high aspirations.
The Academy is committed to following the government’s careers strategy and measures its Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (‘CEIAG’) against the Good Career Guidance Report. This report identifies 8 Gatsby Benchmarks which schools must follow:
- A Stable Careers Programme
- Learning from Career and Labour Market Information
- Addressing the Needs of Each Pupil
- Linking Curriculum to Careers
- Encounters with Employers and Employees
- Experiences of Workplaces
- Encounters with Further and Higher Education
- Personal Guidance
The Academy uses tracking and audit tools to measure its progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks, ensuring the quality of provision is high and continually improving.
The Academy organises events throughout the year including careers workshops, enrichment events, speakers, off-site visits as well as CV and mock interview sessions. The Careers Team are available to provide support and guidance to students in making choices at key academic decision points, for example choosing options at ages 14 and 16. The Careers Hub, located in the library, enables students to research their careers and which subjects they would like to study.
Within the 7 Year Journey, students have access to the Morrisby tool, a useful psychometric test for young people; a series of online tests are completed to assess a student’s logic, verbal, non-verbal and numerical reasoning, spatial awareness and mechanical aptitude. The results provide students with a wide range of personalised information on careers, subject choices, apprenticeships and higher education, each with detailed routes to entry and qualification requirements. These simple yet powerful assessments match students’ individual interests and personality traits to specific careers and courses, analysing results against more than 600 careers.
The Future is Bright!
All careers activity at The Quest Academy is led by Ms R Patel and the Careers Team.
The Academy recognises the importance of ensuring that its students and their parents/carers are provided with the opportunity to receive information relating to study, courses and qualifications provided by alternative institutions. Any organisation that should seek to engage with students and parents will be afforded this opportunity and arrangements should be made through contacting the Designated Careers Coordinator – Ms R Patel using the email address: RPatel@thequestacademy.org.uk
Measuring the Impact of the Careers Programme
At the Academy we use the Compass Audit Tool to measures and assesses the impact of the careers programme on pupils. We also supply impact data so it can be released by the DfE.
TQA Career Hub
TQA Career Hub is your ‘one-stop-shop’ for career planning, searching for extra resources and information. You can find it in the TQA Library, Q6 Common Room or follow the link below for the online version.