The Swindon and Wiltshire Careers Hub has gained additional funding to extend its offer for a further year and to expand its remit to work with all schools and colleges across the region:

A new wave of Careers Hub expansion was announced on 23 June 2020, by the Department for Education and The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC), extending coverage in local communities across England. Working through a partnership approach with schools, colleges, employers, local enterprise partnerships and other local organisations, Careers Hubs have accelerated levels of support and improvement in young people’s career development.”

This announcement means that the Swindon and Wiltshire Careers Hub will be funded to continue for the next academic year and will be able to broaden its reach to include all schools and colleges in the county. An additional 7 institutions across the region will be invited to join the work of the Swindon and Wiltshire Careers Hub and become part of its wider careers network. All Careers Hub institutions are matched with an Enterprise Adviser, a volunteer from the world of business  who works with the school or college’s senior leadership team and Career Leader to develop their careers programme.

Evidence published by CEC in October last year showed Career Hubs accelerating overall careers education progress and performance by 56 per cent in 12 months. Key findings were:

• 95% higher standard of performance in schools linked to Hubs over schools that are outside the careers network established by CEC.
• Two third of schools and colleges in Hubs run regular encounters with employers, compared with just over a third (36%) in schools and colleges outside the network
• Nearly three in five schools and colleges in Hubs run work experience compared to around a third (35%) outside the network
• Nearly two thirds of schools and colleges in Hubs are learning about careers direct from the jobs market compared with only 3 in 10 schools outside the network.

Using the Gatsby Benchmarks, a framework of good practice within careers education, schools and colleges across the region are, on average achieving 4.5 benchmarks from a possible 8.0 and from a baseline in September 2018 of 2.3 benchmarks.”

Read more here Careers Hub scale-up to support skills for Covid recovery