Bishop Auckland College is proud to represent Further Education in a national parental engagement report.
Bishop Auckland College are proud to have been asked to represent the Further Education sector in a nationwide parental engagement research report.
The careers action research project proposed by Career and Enterprise Company (CEC) and supported by Association of Colleges (AoC) was designed to focus on the provision of CEIAG in FE colleges and independent training providers, with a specific lens on the relationship between parent/carer engagement and careers support in the sector.
Bishop Auckland’s application was successfully selected from a list of many applications by the CEC & AoC, along with South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGSC) and Learning Curve.
The participating providers also took part as a panel in a ‘Hot Topic’ webinar to discuss and share findings with other providers.
Bishop Auckland College’s Head of Community & Careers, Jennifer Phillips, said:
“We were delighted to be selected to participate in this careers action research project which aimed to engage and empower parents and carers with impartial, constructive and well-informed career conversations.”
“Involving parents and carers in career meetings allowed for conversations to be extended to discuss students’ skills and strengths, to help inform careers decision making and identify potential pathways.”
“From the findings, parents and carers felt more informed about the opportunities available and felt supported to help their child with study and career choices whilst gaining confidence to engage effectively with support provided beyond the College.”
Parental engagement has recently been given more prominence in the revised Gatsby Benchmarks, with the relaunch document stating that “parents and carers are one of the biggest influences on young people’s career decision making”.
And that the updated benchmarks have been designed to support organisations to “embed parent and carer engagement into planning and specify the need to share information with parents and carers and support them to use it with their children.”
This report explored the insights gathered from Bishop Auckland College and SGSC as well as independent training provider Learning Curve, who took part in an action research project on parental engagement.
It also highlighted how and why a strategic focus on parental engagement improves the quality of careers advice and guidance, with positive impact on students, parents and the institutions themselves.
*Find the report here.
