This new requirement places more emphasis than ever on young people knowing what to do next. To help, U-Explore's national careers platform is packed with information and resources that enable young people to explore the multitude of career options available to them, map the qualifications and experience they will need to reach their chosen destination and effectively plan their next steps.
In the latest U-Explore Supports short film, which can be viewed in full here, we visit Sheffield Park Academy to look at how staff and students have been using U-Explore to prepare for post 16-18 applications and Raising the Participation Age.
Samantha Headford, IAG Coordinator at Sheffield Park Academy, said: "I'm already starting to look at options for our year 10s to get them ready for doing their (post 16) applications and U-Explore will play a very, very big part in that. This year is the first year I've used it with the year 12s and they have found it really useful for doing their UCAS applications and looking at different options.
"Looking at Raising the Participation Age, I've already started to do a lot of work with our year 9 and 10 students, informing them that they do have to stay in education or a job in which they're learning until they're 17. U-Explore will be really useful in getting the students to look at different options."
Mathew Sykes, Exams Manager at Sheffield Park Academy, added: "If students don't want to stay on at sixth form or do traditional courses then there are huge amounts of things that they can do out there, which they won't know. It doesn't have to be traditional education in a classroom; there are Apprenticeships offered by a series of training providers, and to have all that information in one place is a fantastic resource for young people to be able to access."
Added features and benefits will be coming to U-Explore in September 2012, making it even easier for young people to access independent and impartial advice about all of the mainstream education, training and employment opportunities available to them in their region. For full details of the exciting changes coming to U-Explore, click here.
