As it's National Careers Week, I would like to share some of my top tips that will help students choose the right career.

1. Make it fun and widen your choices

Using online resources is a great way to explore your options. Planning your future should be fun. You could be working abroad or working in a profession yet to be invented - the world is your oyster. What can be more exciting than thinking about where you could be in five years time? Don’t forget to research careers you have not heard of before. For example, you may enjoyed maths, and the obvious choice might be an Accountant, but what about an Actuary or Quantity Surveyor, to name but two alternatives?

Young people across Surrey are being engaged and inspired about their futures with more than 35,000 teenagers using the county's new online careers information service to plan their next move.

All young people between the ages of 13 and 19-years-old in Surrey have free access to U-Explore, the online careers and employability platform dedicated to inspiring students about their futures and placing them in control of their own progression. This service is part of Surrey County Council's Youth Engagement Contract.

From September 2012, schools were given the responsibility of securing independent and impartial career guidance for students in Years 9-11. However, from September 2013, this duty will be extended to include Year 8 students and 16-18-year-olds in both schools and colleges.

In May 2012, the Department for Education published a consultation on extending the duty down to Year 8 and up to 16-18-year-olds. There were 327 respondents, including career professionals, local authorities, further education institutions and academies.

Interactive maps linking learners to education and training opportunities around the UK go live on U-Explore's national careers platform this week.

The interactive, dynamic and searchable maps of the UK will be available through the dedicated Further Education, Higher Education and Apprenticeships walls, which can be found in the My Options application.

The new academic year begins next week and U-Explore will be going back to school with a range of stunning developments to its national careers platform.

As educational professionals will be aware, upon the return this September, all schools will have a duty to provide their young people across years 9 to 11 with access to independent careers guidance that includes all 16 to 18 education or training options.

With this in mind, U-Explore's national careers platform has been rebuilt from the ground up, with the involvement of teachers and students, to create an unrivalled learning experience.

The Government's new Raising the Participation Age (RPA) legislation means that all students beginning year 11 in September 2012 must continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17.

This does not mean that young people must stay in school; they will be able to choose one of the following options post-16:

• Full-time education, such as school, college or home education
• An Apprenticeship
• Part-time education or training if they are employed, self-employed or volunteering full-time (which is defined as 20 hours or more per week)

Careers Education, Impartial Advice and Guidance, Work Related Learning and Enterprise are all subjects when done well require input from employers. Previously there has been a plethora of organisations who were placed to be that link between education and employers, EBP’s who could put on a Careers Fair, Dragons' Den or Work Experience programme to meet the needs of the school. Sadly, in many cases they have gone, and so too has the budget to buy in such services.

Schools are left with a choice: to continue to deliver an enriched programme of learning or to bring it down to the statutory basics and offer a very limited CE/IAG curriculum. In some schools it is the fear of the planning and employer engagement that leads this decision.

U-Explore is delighted to announce that its national careers platform just got bigger and better. What’s more, it will be launching alongside September’s incoming new statutory duty for your peace of mind!

Under Section 29 of the Education Act 2011, all schools now have a duty to provide impartial IAG from September. They must provide their young people across years 9 to 11 with access to independent careers guidance.

To do this effectively, schools need look no further than U-Explore! Fully updated in time for this new legal obligation, U-Explore provides schools with the solution to the following statutory guidance objectives:

This September, secondary schools in the UK will have a new legal duty to provide impartial careers guidance to their students. With that time fast approaching, we look at some of the issues and challenges that are facing schools.

Preparing to deliver new duty

Schools have had details of their new responsibility from the Education Act 2011 and the statutory guidance issued by the Department for Education (DfE) earlier this year. The government expects schools to put arrangements in place this academic year for delivering careers guidance in September. It is essential for schools to prepare and plan their new duty, but what does this involve?

This September, secondary schools in the UK have a new legal duty to deliver impartial careers guidance to their students. The Department for Education (DfE) has outlined their key responsibilities and has stressed the importance of helping students to make well informed choices about education, training and career options. Loughborough University company, CASCAiD, helps schools implement careers guidance that supports the success of their students.  Producers of the already popular careers tool, Kudos, for over 20 years, the company plans to release a new version this June.

“We are aware that schools are facing a challenging time with the new duty to deliver careers guidance alongside the introduction of new destination measures and Raising the Participation Age - with reduced levels of support. When we developed the new version of Kudos, we knew it was paramount to incorporate features that would help schools meet the requirements of their new statutory duty but also to provide students with a high quality tool that was in their best interest” said Lynda Lacey, Chief Executive of CASCAiD.