Archived News

National Careers Week (NCW) is an exciting prospect to explore careers guidance and the free resources available for you to use in education. Do you recognise the importance of high quality careers education? Do you want to be the difference for young people? Together we can!

What is National Careers Week all about?

This year National Careers Week will run from the 2nd – 7th March 2020. NCW is run as a not for profit organisation and is supported by experienced professionals in the world of education, business and careers guidance. Empowering and advancing the level of career education provided in school and college is the main priority during National Careers Week. 

The week of the 2nd to the 7th of March will see schools, colleges, universities, teachers, career leaders and career advisers celebrating Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG), which ultimately prepares young people for life after education. It also enables students to make well-informed decisions on their future prospects.  

NCW will explore how students can find high quality career guidance and how schools and colleges can implement the The Gatsby Benchmarks as outlined in the Careers Strategy. Providing career advice in a constantly changing labour market can be challenging at times! Gone are the days where careers were considered a linear pathway and instead we face a multitude of career pathways and education routes. 

Ensuring each pupil receives high quality career advice and guidance is vital to their future and could drive change within society through well-informed life choices empowering young people to take control of their future.  By using the NCW as an invaluable resource, you’ll take a step closer to achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks which is made up of 8 steps, these include:

• Education and guidance related to a stable careers programme
• Learning from free careers resources
• Addressing the needs of every pupil
• Link curriculum and education
• Students should have opportunities to learn from employers about work
• First-hand work experience
• Further and higher education encounters
• Personal guidance

The National Careers Week website has some great case studies for teachers and advisers looking to inspire young people. It also presents employers with the chance to engage with students while promoting their career and training opportunities. 

How can you get involved with National Careers Week 2020?

Do you have fantastic networking skills? Want to bring students and employers together? NCW need your help! 

You’ll be working towards helping hundreds of students to gain access to labour market information and helping them to make a well-informed decision about their future. Labour market information (LMI) is a great tool to use when career planning. The information provided is reliable and involves data surrounding employment rate, demands and salaries. 

To find out more information about how you can get inspired and involved with National Careers Week you can visit their website.

When is it?

The 13th annual National Apprenticeship Week date has been announced today – and will take place from 3 to 7 February 2020.

National Apprenticeship Week is an annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships across England and is a time to recognise and applaud apprenticeship success stories across the country.

Apprenticeship employers use the opportunity to promote the success of their apprentices and highlight the huge benefits to other employers, of all sizes, who are thinking of taking on an apprentice.

Apprentices across the country will also be celebrated throughout the week, with engagement and events in schools and colleges. Many current and former apprentices will go back to school to tell their story, attracting the next generation of apprentices, so they too can fire up their future career.

Throughout the 13 years, National Apprenticeship Week has brought together apprenticeship supporters from across the country, with MPs, ambassadors, apprentices, training providers and top employers involved in recognising the value and importance of apprenticeships.

For NAW2020 we want even more people to get behind the week, to build on last year’s success, which included:

• Over 1250 events taking place across England;
• NAW2019, National Apprenticeship Week and #BlazeATrail all trending UK wide on Twitter over the course of the Week;
• Over 30,000 unique visits to the NAW resource pages on GOV.UK;
• And a hugely successful #askanapprentice day with employers, including TUI, Bentley Careers, Siemens UK, AXA Insurance and Cisco all getting involved.

Anne Milton, Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills said:

“I am thrilled that National Apprenticeship Week 2020 will take place during early February 2020. It’s a chance to celebrate apprentices and the brilliant work being done by schools, the FE sector and employers across the country to promote the huge benefits of apprenticeships.

“Apprenticeships offer people of all ages and backgrounds a high-quality route to skilled employment with the option to train at every level in a range of exciting professions like aerospace engineering, data science, teaching, law, nursing, and fashion. 

“This year we had over 1250 events and 1900 articles and features in publications from the Financial Times to Cosmopolitan. I would encourage employers, training providers, schools, apprentices and our ambassador networks to start considering how they will get involved in National Apprenticeship Week 2020.  We want next year to be even bigger and better reaching even more people and employers so they understand the advantages apprenticeships bring”.

The theme of National Apprenticeship Week 2020 will be announced in the Autumn.

Keith Smith, apprenticeships director, Education and Skills Funding Agency/Department for Education added:

“A week-long celebration of all things apprenticeships gives opportunity to recognise the importance of apprenticeships and their impact. National Apprenticeship Week also enables employers, providers, partners and apprentices themselves to creatively celebrate what apprentices achieve and the impact they have locally, regionally and nationally.

“In the coming months we will release more details for the Week 2020, but by sharing the date in advance I am hopeful that our many partners will start to plan some fresh and inspiring activity that they will run during National Apprenticeship Week 2020.”

More information on National Apprenticeship Week 2020 will be announced on GOV.UK and on social media channels. Follow @Apprenticeships on Twitter and National Apprenticeship Service on LinkedIn to keep up to date.