Assessing Impact
Wrotham School will assess the impact of its careers programme on students through the following activities:
- conducting a Compass+ evaluation of the school’s progress towards the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks. This will be completed three times a year and include input from the Careers Lead, our Enterprise Co-ordinator (from the Careers and Enterprise Company), our careers link governor and, where appropriate, our Enterprise Adviser.
- analysing destinations data in line with activities that students have taken part in while at school. This will be conducted annually in Term 2, following the publication of the school’s performance figures.
- completing an annual student survey (the Future Skills Questionnaire) with all students to help us to identify and plan around gaps in their knowledge and confidence around careers education and the options available to them.
- student evaluations and feedback will be sought after key events using our Morrisby careers platform.
- staff confidence audits will be conducted annually to identify requirements and opportunities for Continuing Professional Development.
- the views of parents will be surveyed after key events e.g. Careers information evenings, Work Shadowing Day, Year 12 Work Experience and so forth.
- employer and staff feedback will be surveyed after key employer encounters where appropriate.
Key findings from the Future Skills Questionnaire 2022-24
Please note that the FSQ was made available to schools at the end of September 2022 and can only be completed once in an academic year. In 2023-24, we plan to evaluate Year 12 in Term 4, Year 9, 10 and 13 in Term 5. Current Year 11s completed the FSQ at the end of Year 10, which informed our planning for this year.
| Question/Idea | Year 9 (April 2024) | Year 10 (2023 – to be updated in term 5) | Year 11 (June 2023) | Year 12 (April 2024) | Year 13 (Dec 2022 – to be updated in term 5) |
| Survey completed by | 54% | 60% | 84% | 77% | 56% |
| Do you feel supported to make your career decisions and choices? | N/A | 69% | 74% | 91% | 91% |
| Do you know what skills employers need? | 81% | 81% | 81% | 80% | 89% |
| Areas of high confidence/understanding | Knowing which subjects they want to study at GCSE; how to make a good impression for a position of responsibility; ideas about what jobs they want to do in the future; hearing different people talk about their jobs; understanding of apprenticeships | hearing different people talk about their jobs; thinking about how jobs may change in the future; understanding of apprenticeships; understanding academic routes; how to make a good impression when applying for a course or job | understanding of different apprenticeship levels; understanding of academic routes; awareness of local employers | understanding of employment, apprenticeships and higher education routes; hearing different people talk about their jobs; awareness of businesses and employers in our area | university and degree apprenticeships; how to make a good impression; short and long term impacts of career decisions; awareness of local employers. |
| Areas to be addressed | understanding T levels; understanding vocational routes like BTECs; knowledge of trustworthy websites | identifying trustworthy websites; understanding traineeships; understanding T levels | identifying trustworthy websites; understanding of traineeships and T levels; making contact with people in jobs that interest you. | Knowledge of trustworthy websites; Confidence in talking about skills in interviews; more knowledge of different types of recruitment processes | knowledge of apprenticeship levels; knowledge of different interview/recruitment techniques; confidence in interviews. |
| Improved areas since last FSQ | n/a 2023-24 was first completion | n/a/ 2022-23 was first completion | n/a 2022-23 was first completion | Contact with employers in jobs that interest me: 40% to 45%); Optimism about my future career: 53% to 66%; thinking about how jobs will change in the future: 68% to 80%; knowledge of recruitment processes: 44% to 56%. | n/a 2022-23 was first completion |
Evaluations from 2023
Careers Fair March 2023 – Exhibitor Evaluation (employers, colleges, training providers and universities).
Key findings from our destinations data (as published by the DfE in October 2023 and Feb 2024) for our 2021 school leavers
Please note – this data is published by the Department for Education with a two year lag so that these are sustained destinations. That means that these are placements that students stayed in successfully for at least 6 months after starting.
Please also note that these school leavers were directly affected by the pandemic.
Figures updated from DfE published information in February 2024.
Destinations data for Wrotham School students over time (again, using DfE figures).
Please note that no data was published for 2018 because there is a two-year lag and so that data would have been released during the pandemic in 2020, but all performance data was withheld that year due to the cancellation of exams.
