Shrewsbury Futures Department gains National Quality in Careers accreditation

Shrewsbury School has successfully achieved the national Quality in Careers Standard using the Career Mark approach.  

The above is an extract from an email I received just before 3.30pm on Monday 20^th June, from an organisation called Complete Careers. For context, back in February 2020 the Deputy Head (Academic) and I had decided that in the next academic year Shrewsbury School would pursue formal accreditation for the work the Futures Department, and indeed the wider school does, to support pupils with their careers planning. We identified that the ‘Career Mark approach’ was the most challenging to obtain, so the one which we felt would be a genuine benchmark to help us fully evaluate our provision against national standards.  Due to the disruption the pandemic caused we had to put these plans on hold, but since the start of this academic year, the process of securing this accreditation commenced with vigour!

To briefly summarise what then followed has been approaching twelve months of information gathering, event evaluation and a full analysis of the support we offer all our pupils in all of our year groups. Over 90 pieces of evidence were sent to inform Complete Careers about our ‘Futures work’, with pupil focus groups then taking place on Monday to test the impact of the provision we offer. Following these and further discussions, the confirmation email advising of a successful outcome arrived.

My colleagues in the Futures Department and I are delighted by this news but are more excited by the fact that, in many ways, we feel we have only just begun. As we approach the end of what will be the first full academic year on site since 2019, the plans in place for the coming years will continue to build on the progress we have made and address the areas where further progress is required. As the world of work continues to evolve at pace, it is vital that the support we offer adapts and reacts accordingly.

I would like to place on record my enormous gratitude to the OS Community, the parent body and friends of Shrewsbury School who have supported various initiatives during recent academic years. These have varied from careers insight talks, to concepts for new events (such as our inaugural ‘Enterprising Futures Conference’), mock interviews, work experience placements, university panels and much more. Without this assistance, it would simply have been impossible to achieve this accreditation.

The Futures Department is always open to suggestions and offers of help, so in the Michaelmas Term I will circulate a survey to capture interest levels in this and any other feedback you might have. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing many of you at Speech Day, where I will be wishing you well for a relaxing summer break ahead.

Chris Wain
Head of Futures