Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance (CEIAG)

The Career’s Team and Career Programme at Sawtry Village Academy

At our school we understand that careers information is critical for students when they come to making the best possible decisions, next steps and future career choices. 

We have a dedicated team of knowledgeable and experienced professionals who can help, support and teach students about the choices available. Our aim is to make sure that every student achieves their full potential.

Our Career’s Team

Our Career’s team is supported by a serving Academy Councillor, Alison Tanton-Smith, who can be contacted by emailing through the Principal’s Personal Assistant, Victoria Bretherton: VBretherton@sawtryva.org

Our school is part of Meridian Trust and we work collaboratively with other schools in the Trust to offer a website which has been developed for parents and carers: Meridian Career Pathways.  We know, from research, that students ask their parents first about careers, qualifications, what it is like in the workplace and what they should study. The educational and qualification landscape has changed dramatically over recent years. This website has been designed to help parents with ‘Activities’, ‘Conversation Starters’ and ‘useful websites’ and is designed to offer help and support at every stage of a student’s journey through a Meridian Trust school.

Policies and Further Information

Please click here to see an overview of our KS3, 4 and 5 careers programme for all year groups.

The Careers Policy for our school can be found here:

• You can view the Meridian Trust CEIAG Policy

• You can view our school ‘Provider Access Policy’, which by law we have to put on our website

All students have to continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they are 18.  This does not mean young people must stay in school. They can choose from:

• Full-time education (e.g. at a school or college)
• An apprenticeship
• Part-time education or training combined with one of the following:
• • employment or self-employment for 20 hours or more a week
  • volunteering for 20 hours or more a week

More information on choices and how parents can help their children can be found on the Meridian Career Pathways website Years 10 and 11 and Years 12 and 13.

Measuring the Impact

The careers programme at our school is monitored annually and this evaluation includes:

• A review of destination data as an outcome of the careers programme
• A review of the programme against the Gatsby Benchmarks to ensure best practice
• A review of data from Unifrog that feeds into the Gatsby Benchmarks
• A review of the Future Skills Questionnaire which students take in years 7 and 10

Labour Market Information

We must include, on our website, information on the Labour Market (LMI) both locally and nationally. A key component of our careers provision is providing information to students on how to look at Labour Market information, interpret the data and recognise professions, industries and jobs which are both in demand or in decline. We teach, within our Career’s Programme, LMI and analyse entry routes, salaries, skills and qualifications needed for a variety of roles, jobs and careers.         

LMI – Labour Market Information – for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can be found here and for the national trends click on Meridian Career Pathways website here.

We Would Love to Hear From You

If you feel you could support careers education at SVA or have ideas or advice, we are always seeking support to improve our careers education further. Please contact us by completing the following form