Pathways to priorities

Liverpool City Region Careers Hub annual conference

Liverpool City Region Careers Hub, managed by Growth Platform – Liverpool City Region Growth Company, welcomed headteachers, careers leaders and business volunteers to its annual conference held at Liverpool Football Club.

With over 150 guests in attendance there was a real sense of excitement to provide delegates with a useful and inspiring day.

Partner organisations including All About STEM, Elevate EBP and Shaping Futures also supported the event with information stands for delegates to learn more about the support that is available to all schools and colleges.

Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor, opened the event with a positive and motivational address about improving the life chances of young people across the City Region and ensuring that young talent isn’t wasted.

The theme of the morning session ‘Pathways to Priorities; linking Careers Guidance to School Improvement’ presented by Nicola Hall, director of education, The Careers and Enterprise Company, focused on preparing young people effectively for the world of work and for their successful futures.

Schools and colleges were challenged to deliver excellence - through information, resources, tools, training, using the network of careers hubs and building communities of best practice.

Gill Walsh, careers hub lead for Liverpool City Region opened the afternoon session with ‘Bringing the World of Work into Everyday Curriculum’ to highlight the regions employment and skills labour market information with a focus on the clean growth sector.

Colleagues from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority provided a detailed overview including latest vacancy opportunities to guide our young students.

‘Creating Careers in the Curriculum’ – a new and exciting curriculum project starting in 2022 was also announced at the conference.

This project will bring together curriculum teachers and businesses to co-develop new lesson plans that will help to embed careers education firmly into the school curriculum and teaching ensuring that young people can make sense of their subject content, the curriculum and, importantly, relate their learning to their career decision making.

It will also connect teachers with the world of world, offering continued professional development to build a creative, careers led curriculum.

Andrew Rannard, headteacher, De La Salle School St Helens & LCR Careers Hub board member said: “It was a pleasure to see so many careers leaders attending the annual conference this year. During such challenging times for schools, it is heartening to see the real value and importance that so many leaders place on high quality careers education. The day provide exactly what leaders needed: from high level inspiration about why we do what we do through to very practical examples of highquality practice in different schools and local authorities. An inspiring and valuable day for us all”.

Gill Walsh, careers hub lead for Liverpool City Region said: “The event was a great success and the passion and enthusiasm in the room was fantastic. We will continue to work with our schools, colleges and employers to help every young person find their best next step.”