Month: March 2021

Matrix Standard Accreditation since 2017

The Changing Education Group secured the Matrix Standard Accreditation in 2017

“We are very proud of our Careers Advisors and our Wider Careers Provision. The accreditation is a testament to the hard work of our delivery staff and their commitment to support students in making informed decisions about their transition into further education and employment. During the pandemic, our careers staff have continued to offer support to educators and students to minimise the impact on young people as they make choices that will affect their working lives.”
Matthew Hodgkinson (Director/Co-founder)

What is the matrix Standard? Want to know more? click this link
It is the international quality standard for organisations that deliver information, advice, and/or guidance (IAG). Either as their sole purpose or as part of their service offering.
The matrix Standard is the Department for Education???s (DfE) standard for ensuring the quality of the delivery of high-quality information, advice, and guidance. The DfE supports the matrix Standard as the quality framework for accrediting information, advice and guidance contracts including the National Careers Service, its subcontractors, and other services delivered on behalf of the Education Skills Funding Agency.

It helps providers to improve their services by benchmarking against best practice and it offers accreditation to those that meet the full standard. When an independent Assessor confirms that all criteria are met, the organisation becomes an accredited organisation and can display the matrix quality mark to demonstrate that it offers high quality IAG services.

The matrix Standard is an outcome-based standard. This means that an Assessor will look not only at processes used to support IAG delivery but also at results achieved.

What this means for our clients?
The Matrix Standard accreditation ensures The Changing Education Group provides our clients with exceptional services. Furthermore, offers the reassurance and confidence that our delivery programmes, software, and staff are continually working towards best practice through critical analysis and reflection, to maximise the outcomes for students.

Key Messages from our most recent assessment
???A high level of engagement and support was found among schools??? staff, and the management and Career???s advisers make positive contributions to ensuring an open and collaborative culture prevails???.

???Careers Advisers are confident and competent in adapting their working patterns to suit the needs of individual schools???.

???It is now evident that there is an embedded approach to managing change. Managers and staff routinely consider when planning change and improvements the potential risks, and they incorporate formal or informal piloting as ???business as usual???. This has the effect of ensuring that new approaches are likely to succeed before being fully rolled out, without deterring the innovative thinking of key staff.???

???Very good use of technology and constant consideration for other uses of online solutions was evident throughout the Assessment.???

Matrix Assessment Report 2019 You can read the full report here?????????????????????????????????

How virtual work experience gave me hope ??? if not a cuppa

How virtual work experience gave me hope ??? if not a cuppa

“Milk? Sugar? One spoon or two?”

I practiced my tea-making skills for weeks before my big work experience placement.

After all, it isn???t every day that a sport-mad 16-year-old gets the opportunity to do work experience at a bona fide football club. I was going to be shadowing employees, sitting in on meetings, assisting junior training sessions ??? and, yes, boiling a lot of kettles.

This was back in the olden days (you know, 13 months ago). When there was nothing unusual about planning an internship in a crowded workspace, alongside people I???d never met. I was incredibly excited.

Because ever since I can remember I???ve wanted to work in the sports industry. I’m in the school sports teams, I???m doing PE for GCSE and planning to study sports science at college. I had it all worked out.

But I also knew how competitive the world of sport is. I knew that I wasn???t the only sporty 16-year-old hoping for a career doing what he or she loves most. I knew that to have a chance of getting my dream job in the sports industry, I needed to stand out from the crowd.

So that???s how it all started. Back in January 2020, I trudged along to a school careers lesson. When my teacher Mrs. Hastings announced that work experience is a vital stepping stone to professional life??? I stopped fiddling with the laces on my trainers ??? and listened. When she offered to help me find a work placement, I took her up on it.

To my amazement, she found me a dream two-week placement at the local football club. It would take place in the Easter holidays. I was over the moon. I dusted off my only smart shirt – and started fine-tuning those tea-making skills.

But as the weeks and months sped by I didn???t realise the world was on the brink of a global pandemic. I had no idea that everything was about to change.

I took the first lockdown in my stride. But when the novelty of lie-ins and extra hours on the X-box wore off I started to worry about my GCSEs. I missed doing competitive sport ??? and my friends.

Then, on a Friday morning in late March, when I was trying to complete a school assignment in my bedroom, Mrs. Hastings emailed to say that the football club had been in touch. My work experience placement was on hold ??? possibly for good.

To be honest I didn???t feel great. I???d already missed out on two staples of school life ??? taking exams and hanging out with friends ??? but this was one blow too many. With company doors shut for the foreseeable, it dawned on me that I may NEVER get to experience working life in the traditional way.

Not only was I missing out on fantastic experiences but this felt like another Covid-related piece of bad luck that was going to push me and my generation further down the recruitment food chain?

After all, you don???t need a string of 9s at GCSE to know that when an employer decides to hire, they go for the candidates with the most experience. If me and my friends couldn???t get the vital experience, where did that leave us?

I spent the summer in the garden teaching my eight-year-old brother to score penalties. But while his goals improved, mine flatlined. When we finally went back to school, I wore a face mask and tried not to look anxious. With most of the adults I knew working from home, I couldn???t imagine how ANY job was possible, let alone one in the sports industry.

But then, one break time in September, Mrs. Hastings came up to me. She told me about a Virtual Work Experience (VWEX) programme run by the Changing Education Group. These were the same people, she said, who had helped fix me up with my original placement ??? the one that I???d been SO excited about back in February. ???Andrew,??? she said, ???This could be a great opportunity for you.???

For the first time in months, I felt the stirrings of an unfamiliar emotion: hope.

Mrs. Hastings explained that the Changing Education Group knew how important it was to offer students a taste of the working world. But instead of waiting for the world to change back to normal, they were adapting to the current situation ??? so that me and other young people wouldn???t miss out.

Using a clever piece of software, VWEX works alongside schools and employers to match individual students with suitable work placements. But, in keeping with the current working world, it???s all done virtually.

Which is why, last month, I got to do what I had begun to think was impossible. I got first-hand experience of what it???s like to work in the sports industry.

VWEX matched me up with some brilliant online events. I attended live masterclass sessions and industry insight sessions. I???ve spoken to loads of people in the sports industry – from sports therapists to sales execs. And I???ve been able to get advice about my own career path.

It hasn???t been the same as a traditional work placement ??? but then again it isn???t trying to be. In a world of turbulence, uncertainty, and working from home, it has given me the very best alternative. More importantly, it has given me back my dream.

And those vital tea-making skills haven???t gone to waste either. Just ask my family!

Andrew is just one of hundreds of students and young people whose futures have been transformed by our VWEX programme.

For confidentiality reasons, names have been changed.

Author: Amos Madra (Careers Advisor and VWEX Host for the Changing Education Group)

We are affiliated with the Careers Development Institute (CDI)

The Changing Education Group is proud to join the CDI “Careers Development Institute” as an affiliate member.

What is the CDI?
The CDI is the largest and most influential UK-wide professional association for the career development sector, which includes career advisers, career coaches, career educators, talent managers, and other professionals working in the public, private, voluntary, and community sectors.

The CDI promotes the benefits that career education, information, advice, guidance, and career management bring to individuals, society, and the economy. We are an awarding body, with a Professional Register and provide a variety of activities to support members and non-members in their CPD. We aim to be at the forefront of debates on career development policy, lobbying hard on behalf of our members & the profession, and promoting the value of effective and impartial careers support.

Why become a member?
The Careers and Work-Based learning teams within Changing Education will have access to an effective network of communication, and a wide range of professional development opportunities. The CDI offers a contemporary institute structure that provides support with setting and monitoring standards of professional practice, including access to the online Career Progression Framework and CPD log.

“The Careers and Work-based learning teams at The Changing Education Group are excited to access the rich resources provided by CDI membership. This will enable greater professional development, and inform each encounter with young people to enhance their transition into further education and employment.”
Joanne Green (Careers Lead)

Want to know more? Visit the CDI Website

Project 25 – BTEC Work Skills Approved Centre (Pearson)

Did you know the Changing Education Group is a BTEC Work Skills approved centre?

Our Project 25 Extended Work Placement team utilise the BTEC Work Skills as a relevant framework to support students who are undertaking work placements as part of a vocational learning experience. The Work Skills framework offers the students a credible framework to prepare them for the world of work and help them reflect during the course of their work placement.

WorkSkills are BTEC qualifications that are designed to develop learners’ employability skills. These qualifications can either be delivered as a core programme or can be delivered as an enhancement to other programmes. New, up-to-date Core Workskills qualifications were launched at the start of 2017. These flexible qualifications can be used with learners of all ages as either standalone or as part of a Skilled for Life programme. The Wider Workskills suite offers a range of standalone qualifications and Workskills for Effective Learning and Employment that is specifically designed to be used as part of an apprenticeship programme. (Pearson 2021)

Want to learn more? BTEC Work Skills

What is the Project 25 Work-Based Learning Programme?
The extended work placement programme supports young people to develop the skills needed for careers progression after school. The project 25 programme comprises of 1 or 2 days a week work-related learning experience with a local employer in line with their visions and aspirations. This enables students to learn key work and employability skills (including life and social skills) which will enhance their transition into further education and employment, which stands them apart from other candidates when competing for college, university, apprenticeship, and employment opportunities.

Staff Reflection. Craig Blount (Project 25 Work Placement Manager for the Changing Education Group)
“For an organisation whose mission is to help young people into the workplace, often against the odds, you can imagine how excited we were to start finding opportunities for students with behavioural and learning difficulties.

This inspired my own journey with Changing Education. I was able to see at first hand the extraordinary, positive impact that work placements could have on these students, and the vehicle it provided for their confidence levels.”

Want to read more? SEN/EHCP Work Placements ???Lessons learned (thanks to Covid)???

Want to find out more about Project 25 click this link or email info@changingeducation.co.uk

SEN/EHCP Work Placements “Lessons learned (thanks to Covid)”

SEN/EHCP Work Placements “Lessons learned (thanks to Covid)”

For an organisation whose mission is to help young people into the workplace, often against the odds, you can imagine how excited we were to start finding opportunities for students with behavioural and learning difficulties.

This inspired my own journey with Changing Education. I was able to see at first hand the extraordinary, positive impact that work placements could have on these students, and the vehicle it provided for their confidence levels.

What began as an experimental project, quickly grew wings. Soon we were able to provide extended work placements, courses about employability, and 70 hours of guided learning leading to a BTEC award in employability. The results were rewarding on so many levels, with students who had found learning challenging in so many ways now able to engage. In the process, we were able to reduce the number of young people not engaging in education, employment, or training (NEET).

One example was a student with high functioning anxiety. Let’s call him James.

James kept away from others at school, as he was anxious in groups. I managed to convince him to take some work experience at a local charity cafe. He was, understandably, frightened at the prospect.

But we worked together to get him started and identified jobs he could own. After a few sessions, he began to feel the green shoots of growing confidence. He was completing tasks without being prompted. Back at school teachers noticed him becoming more involved in lessons. He began to open up and even make jokes.

He proactively asked me if we could source his next placement as a painter and decorator. I went to visit and was overwhelmed to see him with his own seat in the brew room, initiating conversations. I saw him, student, painting a wall in the main corridor surrounded by strangers. He was unphased. This was a transformation. James didn’t just gain work experience; he gained new skills and an entire approach to life.

With many similar success stories behind us, in 2018, we developed a traineeship called Project 25. It was met with an explosion of interest and was soon being accessed by 27 Schools and over 250 students in all parts of the UK.

You can imagine what happened next. What started as a rumour that there was a new strain of flu in Wuhan, quickly became a grim reality for us all. And as the country shut down and the furlough scheme kicked-into action, few groups were hit as hard and fast as students with behavioural and learning difficulties.

Our programme had relied on them visiting places of work, accessing the classroom learning environment, attending school, and chatting to our staff. Sadly, like dominoes, each of those pillars fell in turn, to a point where we only had a single member of staff trying to keep the programme alive.

But where there’s a will there’s a way, and we fought back. The lifting of restrictions last summer allowed us to link-up with the Adelaide Trust to offer P25+. This allowed us to run employability sessions every week in school to discuss what these students would like to do, monitor how it was going, and practise valuable workplace skills.

As a reaction to the new normal, we substituted the BTEC Lessons with our own employability resources. The plan was to deliver the BTEC lessons in Term 2 and 3 when we hoped that the virus would be on the back foot!

We all know what happens to the best laid plans (!) but we did manage to keep going. Some schools still allowed us access within government guidelines and home visits were still allowed for the most vulnerable students. We were also able to facilitate a small percentage of work placements for students working with family members.

Since September the numbers have been small, but we have supported a dozen students in meeting the majority of the Gatsby Benchmarks by tailoring their learning. This has included topics from local market information to work place rights and equality. Each has been immensely satisfying for us and them. Compared to the numbers we achieved back in 2019, these may feel like relatively small footsteps, but they have shone incredibly brightly in these dark times.

As importantly, we have learned some crucial lessons for the post-pandemic world. For a start, in some cases, the new model actually increased student attendance and engagement. Virtual learning helped lower barriers of self-awareness and fears of being wrong. Students actively took part. The online provision also led to schools timetabling our employability sessions and this maximised attendance and allowed parents to join the sessions which has been a huge benefit.

Our fingers are now firmly crossed that we are through the crisis and that our provision will emerge stronger than before. There are definitely elements of the virtual model that suit the students in this programme, as there are across the wider student population. We will also add the eleven-week programme to give students the tools they need to understand the workplace and access content that will give them the confidence and the preparation to be ready to attend a work placement. Again, this has become clear to us during the lockdown.

All-in-all, it isn’t a year I wouldn’t have chosen for so many reasons, but I feel that the students with learning and behavioural difficulties about whom I care so passionately, will now have a better programme, a better understanding of the world of work, and will be better prepared for adult life. We will be able to help many more students like James. And I couldn’t ask for any more than that.

Authour: Craig Blount (Project 25 Work Placement Manager for the Changing Education Group)

Supporting you as your students return to work experience.

Message from the Changing Education Team

Supporting you as your students return to work experience

Greetings from the Changing Education Team,

I hope you are well and surviving the tidal wave of work that is hitting every educator I know right now! If the return to onsite learning, mass testing, and new exam framework weren???t enough to keep you occupied, external work placements are also on the agenda.

The post-pandemic world is going to be even more difficult for students to leave education, and work experience will be a valuable tool in their journey into further education and the workplace. So, I hope it???ll take some weight from your shoulders to know that I can offer all the work experience support you need.

My company, The Changing Education Group, has been bringing employers, educators, and students together for twelve years. Over that time, we have created half a million work placements. We offer personal advice and support and have also created CONNECT software for staff and a mobile app for students, linked to your reporting dashboard, to take all the strain for you. In fact, a silver lining during the pandemic has been the addition of virtual work experience programmes that meet all the Ofsted and Gatsby requirements and are particularly helpful for students who cannot travel far and those with behavioural and educational difficulties.

We can get your work experience programme up and running, provide guidance on Ofsted, Gatsby, and Compass+ integration, risk management, and employer engagement while tracking and reporting on everything you and your students need.

We have recently published some thought pieces on work experience and wider careers provision as part of our thought leader series which can be found here and here, and I???ll be in touch shortly with an invitation to a best practice webinar covering everything you will need to get up-and-running (early sign-up here).

In the meantime, please do contact us at info@changingeducation.co.uk with any questions. We would really love to help your students take their first step into the workplace while saving you a huge amount of time and stress.

With kind regards,
Stephen and the Changing Education Team

Why I don???t work in tech!

Why I don???t work in tech!

I guess we all have our blind spots. Those little things that, however hard we try, just leave us unable to disguise our irritation. For some, it???s their football team losing at the weekend. For others it???s hearing a political view they can???t stand. For me, it???s being introduced as ???that guy who works in tech???!

This irritation is based on one very simple principle. Technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. We get our shopping delivered to our front door. The app that makes it happen is brilliant, but it???s simply a conduit to the greater goal of making shopping easier. In our case, Changing Education helps students find work experience and careers advice. The software we???ve developed simply makes that happen more efficiently and effectively.

It all began 12 years ago when my co-founder Matthew and I decided to start a business. We had a dream, which was to help young people leave education with credible work, life, and social skills. We???d do it by helping them gain work experience. To become familiar with ???life on the other side??? of school or college and offer advice to help them take their first steps on the career ladder.

We founded Changing Education to do just that. We sat between the students, their schools and the employers who could give them such valuable insights into the world of work. The good news was that it caught the imagination. We were inundated. The bad news was that we were spending our days (and nights!) drowning in paperwork, in spreadsheets and in emails. The logistics continued to mushroom.

So when you???ve got too much to do, and a lot of it is administrative and repetitive, the best place to look for help is in the land of technology. Our wish list was pretty extensive. We needed to manage work experience programmes ???en masse???, record every placement and interaction, store all that information and make it searchable, make it accessible to school staff, employers, our staff and, most importantly, the students themselves, advertise new opportunities, manage risks, collate feedback and collate appraisals. I???m aware that was a long sentence, but it gives you some idea of what we were taking on.

The next step was to go shopping for something that ticked all those boxes. If you like your fairy tales, imagine a 21st Century re-write of The Princess and the Pea! We searched high and low, but there was nothing. So unlike the story, we decided to create our own!
That???s how the CONNECT Web Platform and our Student Mobile App were born. And what we quickly realised was that we couldn???t just make something that worked there and then. Things would change, including our vision. Which meant the software had to be incredibly agile.

We wanted it to become an integral indicator of performance management for departments, areas, and courses. We wanted it to report against regulatory requirements, from Ofsted audits and Gatsby to funding applications. We wanted staff to be able to track KPIs, to improve
employer engagement, assist evaluation of the study programme, and develop wider careers model management and tracking.
As the technology became more popular, we realised we needed even more. This meant developing partnerships with other organisations to service the latest Ofsted and Gatsby requirements, and to offer our users even more.

And as we grew, we had to take care that the quality of our data remained high, because a brilliant system with flawed data isn???t very brilliant at all!

Looking back, we built the business without Connect for three years. We???ve now been developing and improving it for a further nine. During the pandemic, we???ve had to be agile enough to switch the provision to virtual experience and advice. Fortunately, it has held up, meaning that we have been able to continue to help students plan for the future at a time when they need it most.

I am so proud of Connect and our student app. I???m so pleased we invested in it heavily. But, ultimately, it???s just a means to an end. Because we have now helped over half a million children embrace work experience, preparing and inspiring them to become future leaders.

Which is why, when we next meet-up, I???d be really grateful if you could introduce me as the guy who works in education!

Author: Stephen Hackney (Co-founder / Director of the Changing Education Group)

(Virtual work experience is taking place right now. We are already planning for on-site work experience next year. We are hosting a series of webinars to explain how to get involved and how to use our technology. It would be great to see you there. (click this link to sign-up)

Continuing Careers Delivery throughout Cov-19. Author Joanne Green, Careers Lead for The Changing Education Group.

It has been a terrible year for so many, but students have been hit particularly hard. Months at home, no social life, cancelled exams, and stress-levels at record highs. It???s been unprecedented and horrible.

The last years of school aren???t just about lessons and qualifications. They are a crucial time for self-discovery. For dreams to be created and plans put in place to realise them.

This means that lockdown, and with it, the closure of many businesses and their premises weren???t just cruel on those directly involved, but also on the students planning inspiring work experience and future careers.

My team and I saw this firsthand from the very start of the pandemic. We are careers practitioners, delivering advice and guidance to children in years 11, 12, and 13, and our focus had always been on providing it in person on site.

So while March 2020 led to many professionals having an enforced rest, we had to act fast. We felt that this was one part of a student???s life that could adapt to lockdown, but there was no time to waste. We had to be agile.

It seemed pretty clear that we move online. But that wouldn???t be easy with remote learning in its embryonic stages and with many employers so preoccupied with rescuing their own businesses.

But we found a way: Scheduling interviews later in the day so they didn???t interrupt crucial lesson time. Switching to virtual platforms and video conferencing. Suggesting students carve-out this ???career??? time to segment it from their academic focus. Involving parents (many of whom are key workers) in these virtual meetings. Working with partner schools to adapt their delivery models.

We had aimed to deliver as close as we could to our pre-pandemic levels of advice and service. What we didn???t expect, is that they would improve!

It has been a long year, but things have moved fast. So fast that students seem more readily engaged in the guidance process than ever before.
According to the Careers and Enterprise Company, by November, 72% of schools believed careers guidance had become more important than ever due to Covid. As importantly, 76% of business leaders stress that there is now an increased need for employers to support young people trying to enter the workplace.
Careers Leads have been incredibly resilient, continuing to help make this possible and highlighting the need importance, and relevance of the Gatsby Benchmark 8 for Good Careers Guidance.

It has been quite a journey, but there are vital lessons to be learned, in this sector and beyond. Careers Leads in schools have explained that an online provision gives students a new breadth of opportunity. They are no longer stymied by the provision in their local geographical area.

Students, meanwhile, seem more focused and enthusiastic than ever before. Perhaps the news cycle has made them more conscious of the challenges ahead.

Or maybe lockdown has left more time to focus on careers? As a member of staff in one school explained, ???students are increasingly grateful for the guidance and a conversation about the future given the current state of affairs.???

Either way, the energy and positivity with which they have thrown themselves into the process is very special.

For anyone running a business, or working with teens, we would conclude that:
1. There will be a place for virtual advisory services even once restrictions have ended
2. Those services often create a more conducive environment for consultancy
3. Business people remain keen to help
4. Never underestimate the resilience, vision, and drive of this generation of students
And although it has been a year to forget, this is, at least, a very significant silver lining.

I???m always happy to connect and discuss any of these themes.

Author: Joanne Green (Careers Lead for the Changing Education Group)
“As Lead Careers adviser at Changing Education I support a team of experienced advisers in their delivery of Careers Advice and Guidance and advise them on issues they have encountered. I also collate and discuss feedback from all our Partner schools to plan and shape future delivery.”

Changing Education Group is now Cyber Essentials Certified

The need
Determined to reassure potential clients that the Changing Education Groups commitment to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) remains undiminished, Changing Education???s (CONNECT) Co-founder, Stephen Hackney, turned to the IASME Governance certification for help.

Risk Evolves Partnership Case Study

Winning on all counts
Despite the challenges of coronavirus, Risk Evolves has delivered the project remotely to great success. In early 2021, Changing Education Group secured IASME and Cyber Essentials certifications at the first attempt. These will enhance its credibility and make completing future tenders far less onerous. In the meantime, the team is busy delivering the two new contracts that Helen helped win.

Future plans
Keen to continue the momentum, Stephen has already discussed potential next steps with Helen. He comments, ???As we expand, we believe it is crucial to enrich our processes, practices, and reputation among our peers (who are not IASME certified). We???ll consider implementing ISO27001, the Information Security Management Standard, when Helen and I feel the time is right.???

IASME Governance provides compliance with approximately 80% of ISO27001 so we???re sure that the transition will be a smooth one.

???The internal audit and IASME application has been a positive experience for The Changing Education Group??? made possible by the high-quality support and guidance offered by the Risk Evolves team.???

Ian Hammersley CEO of SmarteBusiness pledges to Inspire Future Leaders

Our aim at Changing Education is to #inspirefutureleaders; by giving students a real insight into the various industries and paths they could follow and to open their eyes and imagination to the potential job opportunities which are available.

We plan to use 2021 as an opportunity to showcase some fantastic individuals who have given us a true insight into their profession and the journey they have taken to get to where they are today.

In today???s industry insight interview video, hosted by our very own Amos Madra, we hear from the truly inspirational Ian Hammersley CEO of Smartebusiness: ecommerce growth specialists.

Smartebusiness is an ecommerce growth consultancy run by Ian and his brother Mark Hammersley ??? their aim is to support already successful businesses, by giving them that extra push needed, which will then enable them to take their business to the next level.

Ian, a proud finalist for 2014’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards, has also had the pleasure of giving key-note speeches at several digital and ecommerce events; to the directors of some of the UK???s largest online ecommerce businesses. ??Ian can also add being a successful author to his achievements – having written several books on ecommerce strategy, his latest Ultimate Guide To E-commerce Growth: 7 Unexpected KPIs To Scale An E-commerce Shop To ??10 Million Plus.

Ian has shared some truly inspirational tips and advice with us – ???If you are going to run a business in something you are passionate about it isn???t business, it???s fun!??? Fantastic advice for any budding entrepreneur out there.

Don???t forget to share your thoughts using the #inspirefutureleaders.

To find out more about Smartebusiness, get your hands on his latest book or learn a little more about Ian himself, follow the links below:

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