Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG)

At Castleford Academy, we are committed to ensuring that every pupil is inspired, informed, and fully prepared for life beyond school.

Through our careers programme, pupils discover their interests, explore opportunities, and make confident, informed choices about their future education, training, or employment. The programme is designed to:

• Develop high aspirations and encourage pupils to consider a broad and ambitious range of careers.
• Provide stimulating and inspiring information about a wide range of career pathways.
• Challenge stereotyping and promote equality and diversity.
• Equip pupils with the knowledge and skills needed to transition successfully to further education, apprenticeships, or employment.

The Castleford Career Journey – Explore, Encounter, Embark

At Castleford  Academy, our Careers Programme takes pupils on a clear journey from discovering their interests to making confident choices about their futures. Through our Explore, Encounter, Embark model, pupils gain the knowledge, experiences, and guidance they need to achieve success beyond school.

• Explore (Years 7–8) – Pupils begin by identifying their skills, qualities, and aspirations. They explore how what they learn in school connects to a wide range of future pathways and careers, developing curiosity and ambition for the world beyond the classroom.
• Encounter (Years 9–10) – Pupils deepen their understanding through real-world encounters with employers, further and higher education providers, and workplace experiences. They make key decisions about their GCSE options, take part in work experience, and continue to build employability skills.
• Embark (Year 11) – Pupils focus on their next steps, whether college, apprenticeship, or employment. They receive tailored guidance and practical support with applications, interviews, and post-16 planning, ensuring every pupil is ready to move forward with confidence.

Our Careers Programme and Gatsby Benchmarks

Our aim is to meet all eight Gatsby Benchmarks for every child, ensuring that we prepare pupils as well as possible for life beyond school.

Our strategic objectives are to:

• Develop, monitor and review a culture of high aspirations through a fully embedded careers education, advice, information and guidance programme.
• Build a continuously increasing and relevant network of partners and providers who can engage pupils in developing their career pathways.
• Systematically track, monitor and review engagement with the careers programme to ensure every pupil accesses the full range of entitlement during their time at school.
• Evaluate the impact of the programme through Compass and pupil feedback to ensure continuous improvement.

Accessing Careers Information

We are committed to making our careers information easily accessible to pupils, parents, teachers and employers:

 

Useful Careers Links and Resources

To support pupils and parents/carers in exploring future pathways, here are some trusted and useful websites:

Guidance for parents on supporting your child with post-16 and careers progression. Includes advice on qualifications, skills, and opportunities within Leeds City Region.	Guidance on local employers and learn about important skills to help with your future career. This link will take you directly to the labour market report section of the website which contains easy to digest, interactive and engaging labour market information about West Yorkshire.	Offers impartial information, advice and guidance to help you make decisions on learning, training and work opportunities.	Careerometer Explore and compare different occupations using key UK data. Careerometer helps pupils learn about various jobs, pay, weekly hours, employment prospects, and job descriptions. Simply type in a job title to see relevant options, compare up to three occupations, and even view the UK average to put information into context. This tool supports informed career exploration and planning.
A free online library of career-related videos featuring real people sharing their career journeys.	Unifrog is our careers platform for pupils. it allows pupils to research pathways, record experiences, explore post-16 options, and plan their next steps. Pupils should log in with their academy account.	Free, curriculum-linked resources to help young people develop skills for employment.	Watch short videos of people talking about their jobs and career paths.
Explore careers, get employer insights, and find the latest advice and opportunities.	Government website providing information about apprenticeships and live vacancies.

Careers Leader Contact Information

Careers Leader: Mrs K Chippendale 
Email: info@ca.castlefordtrust.co.uk
Telephone: 01977 605060 

For any enquiries about our Careers Programme or opportunities to support our pupils, please contact the Careers Leader using the details above. 

Provider Access Policy

Our Provider Access Policy sets out the academy’s arrangements for managing the access of education and training providers to pupils for the purpose of giving them information about the provider’s education or training offer.

Our Provider Access Policy can be viewed on the Policies page.

Measuring and Assessing the Impact of Our Careers Programme

We measure and assess the impact of our Careers Programme through:

• Tracking pupil destinations after Year 11 (further education, apprenticeships, or employment) with a target of 0% NEET (pupils not in education, employment, or training)
• Monitoring Compass+ data against the eight Gatsby Benchmarks
• Reviewing pupil feedback following key events

Review of the Careers Programme

The CIAG programme is reviewed annually by the Careers Leader and adapted where necessary. This review takes into account feedback from staff, pupils, and external providers from the previous year’s activities, informing continuous improvement to ensure that our provision remains current, engaging, and impactful.

The next review date will be September 2027.